Hiraeth
by Pockymun
Summary: A homesickness for a home you cannot return to or a home that never was - Rose never imagined it would take so long to return home, nor the trouble she'd find along the way. This may be changed depending on what happens in DLC.
1. Chapter 1

A chill settled on Rose as all but one of her blankets were pulled away, and arms wrapped around her, preventing her from reaching for those blankets. Her whining was shushed as her small body was pulled closer to the familiar shape of her mother. Instead of a rare cuddle, Rose's mother jostled her on the way out of her room.

This wasn't how most nights went, and Rose became more aware as she was carried through the hall. It was dark, as was expected at night. Through the passing windows, it was even darker outside, though the city offered a small glow in the distance. At this hour, everything was silent.

It couldn't have been too late in the night; Rose's mother's brunette hair was frazzled, but she was still wearing her day clothes. She held onto the small girl tight, walking quickly to their destination. She wasn't tired. She seemed to be a mix of anger and cautious.

"Where's Dad?" Rose picked her head up from her mother's shoulder to better see everything. Some lights were off, causing dark gaps in the hall. No one else was around, either.

Her mother adjusted her hold on her. "Hush now."

That never worked on Rose—it only caused her to ask more questions. But her mother had that look, the one of focus, and the girl was too curious about the surroundings. The castle looked so different at night. Her mother was acting strange.

She was dressed strange, too. Rose never recalled the hooded cloak her mother was wearing. It smelt old, but felt very comfortable. Maybe she had one somewhere for Rose.

No one stopped her mother; there were few people in the halls at this hour. They didn't seem to think much of the queen taking the princess for a midnight stroll through the castle, or even how she was dressed. Rose didn't recall a time that anyone had questioned her mother, anyway.

Soon they had reached the ground floor of the castle, but her mother didn't use the main door. Instead, she went out to the back gardens. For a moment, Rose thought she and her mother were going to look at the stars. That was something she did more with her father than her mother. Her mother didn't stop to look at the sky.

She took Rose into the stable. It was small and tucked underneath the castle in a discreet corner. Only members of the guard and the queen were concerned with it. Most others didn't know it was there.

Rose was set down to stand on the floor on her own. She pulled her blanket tighter around herself as her mother gathered the necessary gear, then entered one of the stalls. Rose kicked at the stray pile of straw on the floor. Her mother must have put her shoes on while she had still been asleep.

It seemed to take forever before her mother exited the stall, leading a saddled brown horse. The horse stayed still when the reins were let go and the little girl was placed into the wide saddle. Her mother mounted behind her.

The first couple of steps were jarring. Rose held on tight to the saddle as the horse constantly shifted underneath it. She tried her best to be stiff.

"Move with the horse. Relax. You won't fall." Rose's mother had her arms around her to use the reins.

Though it was difficult to listen to her mother, Rose soon relaxed. Sitting so stiffly was hard. She leaned against her mother. As they swayed in the saddle together, Rose was lulled back into sleep.

She was jerked back awake when the horse suddenly stopped. Her mother's cloak was wrapped around her like another blanket, but it made it difficult to see anything. Rose could only hear the man beside the horse.

"No one leaves. King's orders."

"Since when?" Her mother demanded. Rose could glimpse a gate ahead of them.

"Recently." The man had hesitated. "Besides, the road is especially dangerous at night. Shouldn't you wait until morning, miss? I can't imagine the order will last long."

"I'll be fine." Rose's mother moved to reveal something to him. The girl remained hidden and comfortable in her cocoon. "Now open the gate."

Rose had heard her mother use that tone of voice a few times towards guards. It always intimidated the younger ones, and made the older ones straighten their stance. She didn't know how a tone of voice could have such an effect on someone. Her mother was always nice to her.

After a quiet moment, the man stepped away and the gate opened with a small whine. The horse began moving again.

The horse walked until the gate closed behind them. Rose felt her mother tighten her legs for a moment, and the horse suddenly began to run. Rose held onto the saddle again. If it wasn't for her mother, she probably would have flown off of the horse.

Outside of the city wall, there was only one long road to the coast. Rose had always wanted to go outside of the city, and realized that that was what they had just done. She had imagined it happening differently. Still, she was excited to see the coast line and its mountain range gradually approaching at a faster pace.

It became even darker once they reached land. The city lights were far behind them. The trail seemed completely void of light, and silent but for the horse's hooves thumping away. It wasn't what Rose had expected; it didn't seem fun like she had hoped. She couldn't sleep at this pace, but she tried to burrow herself further in her mother's cloak.

For awhile, they kept at a run. Rose's mother gave a slight tug at the reins, and the horse slowed to a walk. He panted noisily, his ears twitching this way and that. Rose found that interesting to watch, but wouldn't emerge any further from her cocoon. Over time, the horse quieted again, and she dozed off, despite the scary surroundings of the mountain pass.

* * *

When she woke again, the sun had breached the horizon. Rose's mother dismounted the horse, and pulled her off as well. The road was only a beaten path in front of a shabby-looking house. Her mother tied the horse's reins to a post in front of the porch. He immediately put his head down in the water trough before him. She took time to remove the saddle, placing it on the post as well before leading the way into the house. Rose followed along, although she found it difficult to walk after being in a saddle for so long. Her mother seemed unaffected.

She didn't stop to knock; she entered as if it was her own home. So Rose followed her mother's example. They approached a counter. She thought it was weird to place it in front of the house. This was a weird home.

A man stopped sweeping and came to the counter as well. Rose was too busy looking around at the room riddled with tables and chairs. Maybe this was a weird-looking restaurant. She hoped so; she was hungry. She had never been taken to a restaurant before.

The adults had a short conversation, and Rose's mother ended it by giving the man some money. She then took Rose's hand and led her to one of the tables. The girl took a seat, being sure not to beam too much. Being at a restaurant made her feel like a big person.

It was the first that Rose got to see her mother's face since she had been put to bed the night before (that seemed like a very long time ago). She looked older—even older than she really was—and tired. If Rose could even notice these things about her mother, then she was probably more worn than the girl realized. The woman's brown hair was slightly frizzy now, either from wearing a hood or the horseback ride. Rose had never seen the crestfallen expression of her mother's heart-shaped face before.

That look immediately disappeared when Rose asked, "Where are we going?"

"Home." Her mother's face failed to fully brighten, but a shadow had left her face.

"But we just left home."

"We're going to my home. Where I grew up."

It was difficult for Rose to consider that her parents had had their own childhoods and lives before she was born. She thought her parents had always been who she knew them to be. So it came as a surprise to think that her mother's home was different from her own.

Rose's eyes widened. "You grew up outside of the wall?"

Her mother took some amusement from her surprise. "Yes. Quite far from the city's wall, actually."

"What about Dad?" Rose asked. Her mother's face fell again.

"He couldn't make it."

"Why not?" Rose's shoulders slumped. It wasn't completely unusual for her father to be busy, yet since a serious discussion with his apprentices, he had vowed to spend more time with Rose and her mother (if the two would allow, he had joked). Why wouldn't he want to know about his wife's new childhood home?

"He has work to do." Her mother stated.

"He said he wasn't busy anymore." Rose mumbled. Her mother smiled apologetically as two plates of food arrived.

Even if she was sad, Rose was still hungry. Once a plate was set in front of her, she dug in. Her mother was slower about it, and didn't seem to mind Rose's lack of table manners at the moment.

It was quiet while they ate, and once they were finished, Rose's mother spoke to the man again. She received a small pack and led the way outside. The girl had hoped they were going to stay at this place for awhile. She was curious about what it was.

Her mother took the reins of the horse in her hand, but left the saddle on the post. By now, it was warm enough that Rose didn't need to wrap a blanket around herself. Of course, it looked strange that she was wearing shoes and pajamas, and even moreso that she was outside. Her mother placed her blanket on the blanket that was already on the horse's back. She took Rose's hand in her own free hand, leading both horse and child down the road.

* * *

There wasn't much to say, but plenty to look at. The road cut through a forest. It turned out to not be quieter than the city, but full of birds above in the trees. Rose's mother encouraged her to look closely to see one. Rose only caught a few glances of small creatures in the trees. Her mother knew what kind they were based on Rose's childish descriptions.

Occasionally there were a bunch of wildflowers growing, the kind Rose hadn't seen growing in the city. She was allowed to pick some along the way, and prompted her mother to tell her about them as well.

After awhile of walking—and Rose began to complain that her legs were tired—her mother placed her on the horse's back. It was even stranger to ride without a saddle, and without her mother's body to support her from behind. Her mother continued to lead the horse, occasionally stopping to let the horse drink in a creek and munch on some grass. There was also some bottled water and bread in the pack for Rose and her mother to drink and eat.

As the sun began to approach the horizon again, they officially stopped for the night. The horse tethered to a tree, Rose's mother pulled her down again and instructed her to find sticks, while staying in sight of the horse. Her mother likewise followed the same rule, but picked up larger branches.

It had gotten darker by the time they finished. The woman created a pile, and by some miracle ignited them. She gave Rose her blanket again as the air was becoming chilly.

Dinner was no different than lunch in that it was bread, but there was also cheese. Rose suddenly realized that they were going to stay outdoors all night, in the middle of no where. Her mother didn't seem bothered by it. Once they had eaten and it was dark, she pulled the girl into her cloak. It was comforting.

"Are there monsters out here?" Rose's fingers played with her mother's brooch.

"Just a few, maybe. It's been a long time since I've been out here." Her mother sounded sleepy. "Perhaps they've already all been hunted."

Rose didn't find much comfort in that, but she was intrigued by the idea of hunting monsters. Maybe that's what she would do when she grew up. Maybe her mother had hunted monsters before. Rose was learning a lot about her now. "You can ride horses, Mom?"

Her mother chuckled. "Yes. I started learning when I was your age."

This excited the girl hiding in her cloak. "I'm learning! I've been riding our horse!"

"He's a good horse, but he's no Ilma."

"What's Ilma?" Rose settled down again.

"She was my horse, before I came to the city."

"What was she like?" Rose was full of questions.

"She was bigger, and white. She was also very fast."

That pleased Rose. "I wanna name our horse."

"Alright. I don't remember what it's supposed to be. But now we both need to sleep. We have a long journey." Her mother yawned. Rose sighed and gave in.

* * *

Every whicker of the horse, every snap of a twig in the dying fire, and every rustling in the trees was a monster preparing to pounce on Rose and her mother. Her mother did not stir all through the night. If there was something dangerous lurking, Rose would think she would wake and take care of it. Rose shut her eyes as a way to shut it all out. Eventually, morning broke over the horizon. Her mother woke soon after, and prompted the girl awake as well.

There wasn't much bread left. Rose ate the last of it as her mother kicked dirt over the dead fire. Then they continued on the road again. A fog had settled around them overnight. Her mother explained it would rain soon. She was proven right. Rose fashioned her blanket as a cloak, just like her mother's. It didn't keep the dampness out.

They did their best to remain underneath trees. The raindrops were larger, but less frequent than those from the open sky. Many puddles formed on the dirt road, but Rose didn't play in them like usual. Her pajamas were the only outfit she had out here. Her mother would probably get upset.

To the right of the trail, the treeline stopped as the road bordered a lake. Clusters of cattails and other watery vegetation blocked Rose's view in some spots, but there were large gaps in between them where she could look out over the water. None of the man-made fountains and pools were so large. The lake also held the darkest water she had seen.

Rain seemed to muffle all other sounds out. The birds did not chirp vivaciously as they had the day before when the sun was shining. The rain itself sounded differently to Rose than it had at home in the city; in the absence of other noises, rain seemed louder.

It was a long time before they left the lake behind them. Rose had hoped to see a fisherman, like the ones she had been told about, but her mother said it wasn't ideal weather for that. At least the rain kept the flies down.

As interesting as it was to be going on an adventure into the great unknown, it really wasn't that entertaining to a five-year-old. After naming the horse "Carter", Rose was bored. Her mother would not explain why they were going to her home, or even what it was like. Her mother also did not tell her what her father was doing now, or what could be going on in the castle. The only question that her mother humored was whether or not her home had ice cream. When she replied no, Rose was devastated.

Not far from the lake, they left the forest entirely and walked into a village, or what Rose assumed was a village, based on the stories she had been told. It seemed to come out of nowhere; suddenly there were buildings and people in this great big wilderness.

A few were watching them, but Rose's mother didn't pay attention to them, so Rose didn't either. The woman asked to board the horse in the stable for awhile, and led the horse and her child into a dark and musty building.

Her mother spent some time grooming the horse in a stall, then left him alone to eat and drink, which seemed to make him happiest. Rose and her mother returned to the rest of the village.

It was almost like home in that there were shops. Rose's mother only entered the tailor's, and asked for any spare clothes. The little girl thought it was weird; her mother never asked much from others, and they didn't wear spare clothes. The tailor himself was reluctant to give them anything, but upon seeing Rose's pitiful appearance, he gave in. Her mother requested boys' clothing for her, because she would ruin a dress in no time with her horseplay.

Once they had new clothes, they perused the stock of the traveling merchants. Her mother only bought a brush, and warned a merchant that they would not be able to get into the city, so it would be best to turn back. Rose didn't understand why, but her mother wouldn't answer her question when they were leaving.

They finally entered a giant house, much like the one from the day before. This one also had tables and chairs scattered about the floor, with a long counter off to the side, and a desk in front of the door. Unlike before, Rose's mother led her upstairs after she finished speaking with a lady at the desk.

Her mother found a bathroom and ushered Rose inside. Setting aside their new purchases, she began running the bath. Like at home, Rose stripped herself down. Her clothes had become a clammy sort of wet, but the bathwater was pleasantly warm.

Rose could wash herself by now, and found it odd when her mother joined her in the bath. It wasn't what they did at home. Her mother explained that this was normal where she came from. Two people in the tub took up a lot of room; Rose couldn't play in the water, and her mother couldn't relax as much as she wanted to.

After that, they entered a bedroom. Rose thought it was too early for bedtime, especially since she hadn't had dinner, and she was hungry. Her new clothes were baggy on her, but her mother had managed to tighten them. She fixed their hair and hung Rose's blanket to dry on the window's curtain rod. They stayed there until a bell rang downstairs.

Downstairs was more crowded than before. Rose held her mother's hand as they went to the long counter, now covered with food. She and her parents always had planned meals served at dinner (though it was not uncommon for her father to be absent for that), but Rose had seen much of the castle's staff eat meals like this. She followed her mother's lead, although much of the food was new to her. Her mother seemed to know all of the different plates.

Unfortunately to Rose, they did not get their own table. They found two seats at a table already occupied by older people. They seemed amused to see Rose scanning her plate skeptically. Their amusement was over when she tried a bite and actually liked it. Her mother was glad to see her eating without a fuss.

There was no dessert after dinner, and especially no ice cream. There was entertainment provided by a musician, but Rose's mother decided they needed to turn in early. They returned to the bedroom upstairs.

A bed was better to sleep in than the ground, and there would be no dangerous monsters lurking around. Rose was glad to have extra blankets. Her own was still wet, but her mother assured it would be dry in the morning. She wanted to sleep, but Rose had too many questions for that.

"How long until we get there?" She was still sitting up, not at all tired enough to lay down. The day had been agonizingly long for Rose.

"A few days." Her mother pulled her down in her arms, yawning. They had always been affectionate, but Rose began to notice her mother was being more affectionate than usual. She didn't mind the extra kisses.

"A few days?" Rose whined. She didn't know traveling could take so long! "Will Dad come after us?"

"Oh, maybe." Her mother sighed shakily. "Just go to sleep. We have to leave early."

"I'm not tired." The girl grumbled. She gave it a try, anyway.

* * *

There weren't any scary monster sounds, but there was plenty of noise downstairs. Rose could faintly hear the musician late into the night, as well as various conversation. Then it went silent as she fell asleep. Her mother woke her while the sky was still grey.

After speaking to someone downstairs, sharing some bread as breakfast, and fetching Carter, they were off again. Rose was again in the cocoon of her mother's cloak. Once they passed through the village, Carter began to run. Ahead of them, the sun was rising.

Carter could run for quite awhile. He was panting and sweating when he slowed again. They had gone through another part of the forest, but were now traveling through giant fields. The next treeline was not far ahead, and Carter walked steadily towards it.

Just before they entered another forest, Rose's mother dismounted and pulled Rose off of the horse as well. He grazed as they ate some trail mix. Then they entered the trees.

This adventure wasn't all that adventuring was told to be. Rose exhausted every conversation topic under the sun, and her mother did not contribute much to her efforts. Nothing exciting happened, and Rose was bored. Sometimes she rode Carter, and sometimes she walked.

They slept in the forest again, and left just as the sun was rising. Shortly after, a whole group of people and carts passed them on the trail. Rose's mother kept conversation with them brief: they could not enter the city. Rose wasn't allowed to talk to them. They went their separate ways within a couple of minutes.

Her mother wouldn't tell her why those people couldn't enter the city. She then changed the subject to her own home. It would only take a couple more days to arrive, and it was very far and secluded from the city. Rose was troubled by that; her father would never know the way.

They crossed fields, plains, and even a stream. They came across another village and spent the night there. Again, Rose wasn't allowed to interact with the other people there. All of the traveling made her tired and hungry, so she hardly minded.

Once Rose became used to the chatter of birds, the chirping of frogs en masse, and the occasional sight of deer, the adventure still wasn't that exciting. Her mother admitted bears, boars, and wolves existed in these parts, but assured that they stayed away from humans. Rose was so bored that she found that to be disappointing.

Her mother said daily that they only had a couple more days of travel before they would arrive at her home. It was a way to get Rose to stop asking that annoying question. However, they were both distracted when a raven seemed to be following them, cawing loudly.

"Mom, do you know how to make the bird go away?" After these few days traveling, Rose was beginning to believe her mother knew a lot more than how to be a queen. She knew the difference between a raven and a crow, and had tried to explain it to Rose, but the girl assumed they were still the same bird.

Her mother, leading Carter, stopped to pick up a stick with her free hand. She threw it at the raven, who had since sat on a branch. The stick struck its roost, causing it to fly to another tree.

"We'll just have to put up with him." She sighed, leading the horse again. "He'll get bored eventually."

Rose also gave a sigh, and hoped her mother was right.

Suddenly, there came a loud roar from the direction they had came, and the sky suddenly darkened. Rose clung to her mother. Carter startled, yanking on his own reins. Between the child and the horse, Rose's mother lost hold of the reins. Carter bolted off of the trail, further into the trees.

Picking the girl up, her mother broke into a run on the trail. The thunder continued, much louder in the wilderness than it had been in the city. Rose hid her face in her mother's cloak. She would cover her ears if she didn't have to cling so much.

There were screeches, which caused her mother to halt. To the girl's dismay, she put Rose down. They were surrounded by dark creatures—the monsters Rose had been scared of. Her mother pulled a sword out from her cloak. Rose had seen it plenty of times, but she had never seen her mother use it. She had assumed it wasn't a good sword.

As her mother swung at the monsters, Rose took a deep breath. She had to be brave, just like her mother. She picked up a rock and threw it at one of the monsters. It turned its attention to her, breaking away from the swarm around the woman. Rose squealed.

Just as her mother broke free of the swarm and made the approaching monster disappear, a much larger monster approached and grabbed the two humans. The sword fell to the ground. Rose tried to bite the humongous hand holding her, but it had no effect. A big dark circle appeared, and the monster tossed them through.

* * *

Rose was surprised to be alive, and even more so to be back home. Home looked different, though. She recognized the cobblestone and the nearby tower that was part of the industrial section, yet she immediately noticed that the large doors stood burst open, hardly attached to the doorway, as if something big had broken out of the castle.

Behind her, the city glowed orange. Some of the flames reached high enough to be seen from the castle's entrance. Many buildings were falling apart in the fire. Monster were rampant in the streets. There was no sign of people. The sky was dark from the smoke and the storm. Night had come early.

Her mother was there, too, and she pulled Rose up to stand. Yet no sooner were they steady on their feet, that green flames erupted before them. A strange woman appeared among the flames. Radiant Garden had some weird inhabitants and visitors, but Rose had never seen someone with horns, or dressed so darkly.

The strange woman pointed her dark staff at them, and both mother and child fell to their knees. They both quickly realized that they could not move from that position, either. The witch approached.

Standing tall, she looked down at Rose and her mother. Rose followed her mother's example by keeping her eyes down. The tall woman reached down with a clawed hand and pulled her mother's head up by the jaw. She seemed to be regaining her strength to fight back again. This caused the odd woman to frown.

"I have no use for this one." She stood straight again. Raising her staff slightly off of the floor, the strange woman brought it down hard, casting a dark spell on Rose's mother that caused her to fall and lay still.

Rose waited for her mother to move again, but she didn't. She then felt the clawed fingers grasp her jaw, forcing her to look the woman in her green face. "But this one will do."

* * *

Rose did not put up a fight that night, not even when a bulbous man appeared and picked her up on command and carried her into the castle. The girl continued to watch her mother lay on the floor. The man didn't take her far before dropping her in a closet. The witch had gone off after mentioning something about redecorating. Accompanied by a musty mop, Rose cried at last. She didn't even care when the man banged his fist on the door to quiet her. She cried louder.

There was no way to tell time in the dark closet, and luckily there were no monsters in it. Rose had eventually exhausted herself and gone to sleep. Hunger and thirst woke her some time afterward, and she whined, but the roaring noise on the other side of the door drowned it out. Still too tired to start crying again, Rose fumbled for the doorknob, eventually finding and pulling it.

The man snored loudly, slouched off to the side in his sleep. The door only opened partly due to the weight he had partially pushed against it, but luckily, Rose was small. She squeezed through and decided to explore.

She hoped that one of the guards had managed to fix everything. Aelus would most likely be the one. And where was her father in all of this? He had to be somewhere, in the process of ousting the witch and restoring order in his castle. His apprentices had to be with him. They would have things back to normal in no time.

It wasn't long before a monster appeared from the floor and snarled at Rose. Shrieking, she ran the other way. Perhaps that man would have enough mercy to protect her.

He was still sleeping, despite the screams of monster and child. If he woke from it, the pursuit had already past him. Rose stumbled a bit over all of the debris, but kept going. It may have been her home, but she felt lost in strange halls.

Rounding a corner, Rose smacked her face into something just as dark. She feared it was another monster, but the dark turned out to be fabric. Rose fell on her behind as the woman in the black robe stepped back.

"Begone!" She snapped at the monster, then to Rose. "What are you doing out?"

Huffing, Rose fumbled over words. She couldn't form any, and so balled her fists and threw herself into the woman's legs again. The woman easily kicked her back down.

"Is that any way to treat someone who has showed you considerable mercy?" She chided. Rose sat back up.

"I want my mom!"

"And you will see her—if you do as told."

Rose scrunched her face up. "Nu-uh! She's dead! You killed her!"

The woman smirked down at her. "Don't assume you understand my powers."

Taking a moment to think it over, Rose continued to pout up at the woman. Perhaps she was telling the truth, and her mother hadn't been killed. Merlin had always told Rose that magic could do countless things. But her mother had looked dead to her! Yet if she wasn't, then Rose had to behave in order to see her again, and they could fix all of this together. Though she wanted to wail and throw her little fists at the woman once more, she used all of her self-control to not do that.

"Okay." Rose agreed sullenly, with as much bitterness as a five-year-old could muster.

"That's a good girl. Now, you shouldn't be wandering these halls. The Heartless are always hungry, and I won't always be around to chase them off." The woman pointed out, holding out a long-fingered hand for the girl to take. Rose once again made a face, but took it, assuming it was another guideline to behave. Besides, it was better to walk around with someone that could scare monsters away. Perhaps she might even be fed herself.

"If they're so hungry all the time, why don't you feed them?"

Her snarky question, which Braig would have been proud of, earned a cackle from the woman. "If only it were so easy, but then they would stop being useful, my dear."

Rose perked up. "The guards could easily beat them! Aelus is a giant, so he could crush ten at once!"

She was cut off from praising Dilan and Braig for their specific talents, as the woman began laughing again. Granted, many who had heard Rose's claim about Aelus usually laughed, but it was particularly insulting when this woman did it. She didn't spend too long doing it, thankfully.

"Silly girl, they are gone. The Heartless took the hearts of everyone here, and I'm sure they will finish off the survivors in whatever world they may end up in." She waved it off, and Rose wished she and her mother had made it to her home. She wouldn't have to behave so much then.

"Even my dad?" It felt like she hadn't seen him in such a long time. Rose had last seen him when he read her a bedtime story, nights ago. He was able to do more things like that since he had stopped his experimenting.

The green woman shrugged. "Xehanort wanted to deal with him personally. I don't know what he has done."

"Xehanort?!" Rose snapped out of her gloom. She usually forgot about the newcomer apprentice; he had only been around for a year, and wasn't the most sociable of Ansem's apprentices. Even Even was more pleasant than him!

"Yes. He was the one who told me about this world, and a certain little princess that lives here." The woman was proud of her work. Rose scrunched her face up again. Before any more could be said, they came to the closet, and the man still sleeping. "Idiot!"

The man stirred, then sat up to wake the rest of the way.

"I'm not staying in a stinkin' closet." Rose pulled her hand away to cross her arms.

The woman was surprised by the sudden defiance. "Oh? Is that so?"

Rose stomped her foot. "Yeah!"

"Careful, girl. You wouldn't want to misbehave and never see your mother again-"

"I am behaving! I'm just not gonna stay in a closet!"

Her temper tantrum made the woman scowl. "Fine. Get up, you oaf!"

Rose was pulled along as the woman decided to plow forward. The man scurried to get up and follow after, muttering apologies and promises of better vigilance next time. He was ignored, and so were the various monsters they crossed paths with.

They came to a parlor, still a mess and filled with trunks of various sizes where the furniture was not placed. Rose was placed in a chair and told to stay put, to which she made another face. The woman took the man to another chest and began to explain simple instructions for his next task, and provided threats if he could not fulfill it. Rose was quickly bored with sitting, and instead found it easy to hide among the many trunks. She had to wonder what was inside them.

Some trunks had small noises in them. Those would obviously attract the woman's attention. Rose snuck around them before setting her sights on one box, closest to the door. It was the only one without a lock, too. She decided to be quick about it, but the lid was heavy. It took much effort to push it open, which took too much time as well. Luckily, the man was a complete fool, and the woman told him so a few times before making the instructions even simpler.

Inside were many old books, their spines showing both signs of wear and care. They were big titles that went over Rose's head. Instead, she focused on the shiniest thing in the trunk: a yellow star, with a small blue tail. It was slightly smaller than her head. Rose was compelled to pick it up.

"What are you doing?" The woman barked from across the room. The girl whipped around, star still in hand. "Put that back!"

Rose only held onto the star tighter. It gave her comfort. "What's it do?"

"Put it back or you'll never see your parents again!"

She held it closer to herself. "Yes I will! You're just an evil witchy alien lady!"

The woman began to approach. "My name is Maleficent and-"

Whatever she was about to say was lost as the star began to shine brighter and dash through a window in a flash, pulling Rose along with it.


	2. Chapter 2

Rose landed hard in a dark and dirty street. She had never seen one like it near the castle. Nor was she sure how she got to be outside of the castle. She would have remembered leaving it. She looked to the star that was beside her, but in a flash, it disappeared. Rose had wanted to show it to her parents, too.

Everything was different—even the people, who frowned and ignored Rose as she began to wander. She was pleased to see people about; the witch hadn't attacked the whole kingdom after all! The more she explored, though, the worse it was.

She had expected to see friendlier faces around a corner and familiar landmarks. Nothing changed. The buildings were shabby and the cobblestone lane damp from a recent rainstorm, which Rose had landed in a puddle that left her soaking wet. As she continued to search, she began sniffling, tears building up in her eyes. When she asked where she was, people huffed and pointed to street signs, or berated her for making up a fairytale castle that was not here at all.

Eventually a policeman took Rose to a big house, which was surprisingly cramped inside. He left her under the charge of a tall, mean lady, who looked down at Rose like she was a rat. The lady sat at a dark desk, both looming over Rose. She had at least been given a towel, a cup of water, and some bread before standing before this woman. It still wasn't enough.

"What is your name?" She was busy writing on a paper, but paused to listen.

"Rose." The little girl shuffled her feet. "Well, my parents named me Rosemary, but I tell everyone to call me Rose."

The lady frowned, and didn't look up as she wrote. "Where are your parents? Deceased? Bums?"

"No. They were kidnapped. This alien witch attacked the castle with monsters and pretended to kill my mom. One of my dad's apprentices kidnapped him and they all disappeared. But one of the guards will come find me."

Though it was the truth, the woman's mouth shrank as she looked at Rose. "Be serious. I need to know for the paperwork. If you're so desperate to be out of here, make it something believable for the couples that may want to adopt you."

"I'm not lying!" Rose became frustrated again, pulling the towel down on her shoulders. "It's true! I saw my mom get pretend killed! Even Mali... Mala... Malificant told me!"

"That is enough, girl!" The lady stood, taking a big breath. "Tell the truth! What happened your parents?"

"They're kidnapped!" Rose's vision became blurred. She was so fed up: first Maleficant, now this woman. "I just wanna go home!"

"You have no home!"

"I'm gonna tell my mom, and you'll be sorry!"

The lady came around the desk and grabbed Rose's arm, causing her to squeal. She was pulled out of the office, and to a bench outside of the door. She was forced to sit there, and the lady found a younger woman to tend to her. The office door was slammed shut after the lady, but she soon started talking, muffled by the door.

"Are you hungry?" The younger lady was nicer, kneeling in front of Rose. As tempting as the offer was (the bread hadn't been enough to satisfy her hunger before), she was too mad to eat now. She scowled at the floorboards and ignored the nice woman.

Seeing that fail, the lady sat next to Rose on the bench. "It's okay, you know, to wish that you have a different life. It helps some of us here when we're having bad days."

Rose decided to ignore her. Everyone here was so stupid; didn't they know anything? It was silent for awhile. The young woman looked bored as she waited with Rose, but perked up when a doctor entered the hall. She quietly told him to enter the office, and the two remained waiting on the bench.

The doctor and mean lady could still be heard outside of the office, although too muffled by the door to be understood by Rose. Discipline was mentioned many times. She didn't care. She just wanted to go home! She gave a kick to the underside of the bench in her frustration. Why didn't anyone understand? She was telling the truth!

The guards would come looking for Rose, and they would take her home—just as soon as they finished with Maleficant and Xehanort! But the last time she had seen the guard-apprentices, they hadn't been so nice. They had just about ignored her. No one would know to look here. Everything was so different. Maybe she was far from home. Maybe... that star had taken Rose to a different planet! Like the ones her father tried showing her in the observatory once! That was it! It made little sense, but she believed it!

She was called back into the office, where the lady was still livid. The doctor man sat calmly in front of the desk, as calm as he could be despite everything. Rose had overheard him saying that violent outbursts were a normal occurrence for troubled youth. As nice as he tried to be, there was something about him that she didn't like. She stared hard at the floor after being told to take a seat next to the doctor man.

The angry lady glared down at Rose. "Children should not make up fairy tales and tell them as the truth. The orphanage is no place for such wild stories and lunatics! Any more of that and you'll be going with Doctor Samuel to the asylum! Am I clear?"

"Yes." Rose mumbled quietly.

"That's 'yes, ma'am'!"

The doctor man leaned forward, looking through big glasses at Rose. He spoke gently before either one of them could say anything. "I'd like to speak more with you again, Rose. How about every Wednesday afternoon at three? Would that be suitable to you?"

"I don't wanna." Rose snapped.

The lady glared at her, reminding her of Maleficant. "That wasn't a suggestion. You will do it, to purge anything odd about you."

"One hour a week. I'm sure you will not miss any important lessons." The doctor man added. "Is that alright, Rose?"

"... Yes, sir." No it wouldn't be. She didn't have a say in the matter.

The doctor man nodded. "Then that's settled. I'll leave you to Ms. Landbaum. Be a good girl now, alright?"

He stood and took his leave. The headmistress and Rose were left alone. House rules were listed, then Rose was shown where the girls' room was. Due to it being late in the night, she was quickly prepared for bed, as she was expected to sit in the large classroom with a bunch of girls the next day. Still hungry, she mentally cursed Ms. Landbaum as she cried herself to sleep again, and planned on what her father would do to this woman once he found Rose. It gave little comfort.

* * *

Rose quickly made a reputation for herself among the other orphans. By the end of the first day, not only had she been made to stand in a corner twice, but the other kids began to call her "Princess". After a couple of days, she quieted about her tragic background. By her first appointment with Dr. Samuel, Rose's mouth was sealed shut.

She hated his office; the entire room was made of dark wood, and the uncomfortable leather couch was just as gloomy. Rose squirmed in her seat. The doctor sat in a velvet armchair across from her. He had put aside his clipboard after she refused to answer his first two questions.

"It's been a rough couple of days, hasn't it?" His gave a small smile, obviously trying to coax something out of Rose. "It must be very difficult for you to adjust."

She only scrunched up her face, arms already crossed. What was taking the guards so long? Rose believed they could handle anything: it was what they were trained to do! And yet, it had been days without a single sign of a rescue. This wasn't like all those stories her parents would read to her...

Everything here was the opposite for Rose. There were more children around than adults. The adults here did not have much patience for her; the other kids thought it was fun to mock her. It was difficult to concentrate on lessons with so many other children around—Rose even missed her private tutor that would visit the castle to teach her. The food sucked, but there was nothing else to eat. Rose also had roommates now, and many of them had yelled at her for crying too loud at night, although some of them snored and that was just as annoying. She was thankful that her parents had never given her siblings (Ienzo notwithstanding).

Dr. Samuel leaned back in his chair, pulling the clipboard back into his lap. "Why don't you tell me about your home? I promise to be a better listener than your peers."

"No!" Rose huffed. "I don't wanna talk about it anymore!"

"Now, Rose," He adjusted his glasses. "You can talk about it here. This is a safe place. I believe you."

She scrutinized him. "You're just saying that."

The doctor shook his head. "Your earnestness has me convinced. I'm sure Ms. Landbaum would be more considerate towards you if she had less on her mind."

Rose eased on her defensive posture. "What's that mean?"

"Earnestness? Well, your conviction to your origins." He paused a moment to think it over. Dr. Samuel was like Even in that neither man knew exactly how to talk to children. "That is, you're willing to defend yourself so much over it. So you must be telling the truth."

Looking at her feet, Rose mumbled, "All the other kids laugh at me."

"They don't come from such a colorful background. They might even feel hurt that you assume such a higher status over them." Again, his words didn't convince Rose to trust him. He scribbled something onto his clipboard anyway. "So why don't you tell me everything you can, from the very beginning. You'll feel better afterward, and we can call our first meeting a success."

After some more hesitation, Rose saw his reasoning; or at least, she realized it would be better to go along with him in order to get out of this meeting sooner. If she had one person that believed in her, she shouldn't take it lightly.

"My parents rule a big kingdom. My mom does a lot of stuff all over the place, and my dad is also a scientist. He has six apprentices, and they're all weird. Like, Aelus is a giant and Xehanort is an alien that fell from the sky last year. But before he came, Ienzo's parents died and my parents decided to adopt him, but he's really boring and he used to cry a lot-"

"How did that make you feel? It must have been a surprise to suddenly get a brother." Doctor Samuel had been writing deftly on his clipboard, but stopped to interrupt Rose.

She scowled again. "It wasn't fair. Everyone says that he's so smart and mature. He gets to follow Even and my dad around even when they're working! And he's weird."

He nodded. "It must be very hard to watch as your parents must tend to the needs of another child."

The doctor's words confused Rose a bit. But the more she thought it over, the less she knew. What had happened to Ienzo in the attack? Rose's mother had only taken her away. Why hadn't she taken Ienzo on their adventure? Perhaps he wasn't her mother's favorite child, at least. Even if that were so, if everything was alright now, would anyone be coming for Rose?

"And after Ienzo was adopted? You said something about an alien?" Doctor Samuel didn't give Rose much time to think to herself, eager to hear more of her zany home.

"Yeah. He came after Ienzo. He's weird, too. He didn't know anything about himself, and he says really weird things! My dad spent a lot of time with him at first. He told me to leave him alone. Malificant said that Xehanort betrayed my dad and kidnapped him. But I'm sure Braig and Dilan and Aelus beat both of them by now. Someone's gonna come for me." Rose insisted, squirming again.

"Malificant? Who's that?"

"She's the evil witchy alien lady that brought a whole bunch of monsters into the kingdom," She remembered that the doctor wanted the story in order. "She said that Xehanort told her about us, and she wants everything to herself. But she's not so tough. She killed my mom, but told me that I could see her again if I behaved. And I tried, but I found this star in one of Malificant's trunks and it brought me here. The guards will make her tell them where I am."

Doctor Samuel took a moment to finish writing on his clipboard, then looked Rose over as he thought on it. "That's a lot for someone your age to go through. You should excuse others for not believing in it at first. They haven't had the same experience."

"That doesn't mean they gotta be jerks about it." She grumbled.

He smiled. "I understand. But until your guards come, you are one of them. You should do your best to get along with them," He checked his watch. "Now, I'd say this was a good first session. I will give Ms. Landbaum a good report. Remember what I've told you. Perhaps you may even make some friends."

"Doubt it." Rose mumbled, and only earned another patient smile.

"Until next week, Rose."

* * *

Doctor Samuel's advice was hard to follow. He was right: no one likes it when someone comes around and flaunts their better life in front of them, even if it was all imaginary. Thus Rose began to avoid the other children if she could, and preferred to be that way. That's what she did when they were turned out into the yard and told to play. By now, she knew it was a way for the adults to get a break from the kids.

She sullenly remained on the steps and watched the other kids play. This was nothing like home. Home was much more fun and pretty. The grass here was brown, if there was any growing in the beaten dirt at all. Rose also hated the sight of the fences. They made her uncomfortable.

An older girl broke away from a group and came towards her. There was no mistaking that the girl was looking at her directly. Rose braced herself for whatever humiliations would come next.

The girl sat next to her timidly. Rose watched her from the corner of her eyes, noting the lack of a mischievous grin that would mean trouble. She hated being so paranoid, but she had a reason for it. She leaned away with head hung low. Maybe the other girl would go away soon.

"Hi there." No such luck. Rose glanced at her companion unwillingly. She had very bright green eyes, and freckles across her face. She looked friendly, at least. "I'm Brianne. What's your name?"

Uncertain about this, Rose looked down at her feet and moved them a little. "Rose." Was she going to make a joke about that?

"That's a pretty name. Do you want to jump rope with us?" Brianne pointed to a couple of kids that were using a long rope to jump over. Rose already knew them, though. She only shook her head at the offer. "No? Well there must be something you want to do."

"I wanna go home." Rose complained. Rather than scoffing, Brianne only blinked and pursed her lips in thought. Many had told Rose to get over it, as they all thought this was home. She couldn't accept that for herself, though.

Brianne finally spoke again, being curious. "What was your home like?"

"It's a big castle and everyone is happy and all the plants are green." Rose spoke quickly before her listener would tell her to shut up about such nonsense. "My mom and dad are queen and king and Aelus is a giant and everyone's looking for me!"

Listening with wide eyes, it was unclear whether Brianne had caught all of that or not. She only nodded. "It's pretty serious for a princess to go missing. What happened?"

"Long story." Rose pouted. "I was kidnapped and escaped."

"And then you came here? That's really weird." Brianne commented. The younger girl nodded. It was weird! It was even weirder that another kid was listening to her.

"But someone will come for me someday!" Rose blurted out. She did hope that she would see one of the guards again, or her parents, who would take her home again. Then this could be forgotten about. The more days that passed, the more adamant Rose became about it.

"I hope so." Brianne agreed. Rose couldn't tell whether she really believed her, or was faking sympathy. In any case, it was the first positive interaction she had experienced here, and she wasn't about to let it go. "But until then, what will you do here?"

Having been too busy sulking, Rose never thought about that. She was too determined to leave this place. But now she realized that that wouldn't happen right away. She gave a shrug. What was one to do in a place like this? Rose hadn't tried to fit in. She felt different from everyone else.

She didn't give an answer before Brianne grabbed her hand and stood. "Come on. Come play."

Whether or not Rose wanted to, she was getting pulled towards the game of jump rope. Brianne and her friends were taller than her, and it made her feel intimidated—for the first time in her life. Brianne's friends did not look happy to see Rose joining them. However, with little explanation from the older girl, they allowed her to join the game.

Though she knew of jump rope, Rose had little experience with it. Brianne went first. Her dull brown hair bounced lightly every time she jumped. She did well for awhile, then missed. They all looked to Rose. She approached, thinking she was ready to prove herself to the older kids.

At the first jump, she got tripped up by the rope. She fell in front of the older kids she was trying to impress. While those holding the rope rolled their eyes, Brianne helped Rose up.

"Are you hurt? Oh, your knee..." She glanced at the scraped joint. Rose held back tears. She wouldn't cry about this (much) at home, and she wasn't going to cry in front of big kids. "Maybe you should get that cleaned up and sit out..."

"No!" Rose stood straight, ignoring the stinging of her knee. If she was going to have a single friend in this miserable place, she wasn't going to give up over a small injury. "I'm fine. I wanna keep playing."

"...Okay." Brianne took the ends of the rope from the other two and offered one end to Rose. "Just follow what I do."

Though she wanted to try jumping the rope again, Rose was stuck swinging it for others to jump. It wasn't long after that that the kids were all called back inside for more lessons or chores, depending on the group. Rose stuck close to Brianne, who seemed to keep the others from mocking her. At least until an adult spotted Rose's knee and pulled her away to take care of it. Instead of being difficult with the staff here, she was compliant. At least Brianne didn't think she was crazy. There was someone Rose could talk to. Doctor Samuel was just weird. She vowed to herself that she wouldn't talk to anyone else here about the truth. No one here was like Brianne.

* * *

The following week's appointment with Doctor Samuel was canceled, and Rose did not mind at all. It meant that she could continue to follow Brianne around (or perhaps it was vice versa). Though older by three years, Brianne did not mind the younger girl. Nor did the staff mind that the two girls were stuck together—in fact, it seemed they encouraged it. Rose became far less troublesome under Brianne's watch.

Rose's next session with the doctor had little to do with her tragic back story. While she drew pictures of her home, he asked how she was adjusting to the orphanage. She talked a lot about her new friend: how Brianne helped her in class, they stayed together during chores (at home, Rose usually mucked things up when trying to help; her new friend was there with a guiding hand), and even their assigned beds had been moved next to each other. Rose now wished that her parents had adopted a girl, instead of Ienzo. She told Doctor Samuel that she would try to take Brianne home with her when the guards would arrive.

When at first Rose had been adamant that she would be going home, now she only mumbled absentmindedly about it. Brianne allowed Rose to say all she would about her home, but never said whether she believed it or not. Yet she would ask questions and let Rose keep talking, so she didn't think otherwise. Brianne also gave Rose other things to think about. Or not think about, as she often told Rose to ignore the other kids who jeered at her. That proved difficult, and often ended in a scuffle. Rose became a regular in the corner.

Days passed as Rose spent time with Brianne and had her appointments with Doctor Samuel. She began talking less of her home with the latter; instead, he wanted to know how Rose was adjusting to the orphanage, though there was little progress each week. Nothing more was said about the drawings she had made for him, and over time even Rose forgot about them. The sessions didn't take quite an hour, but he continued to request them, much to the disdain of the headmistress. Rose never learned why, and the headmistress' assistant was always ready to take her to the doctor's office on Wednesdays.

Before she knew it, it was her birthday. The date was always scrawled on the blackboard of their small classroom. At sight of it, Rose had run out of the room and found shelter in the broom closet. The coaxing of the teacher, the assistant, caretakers, and Brianne could not bring her out. Not even the threats made by Ms. Landbaum helped—she only made the wailing worse. The last resort was to mention the birthday cake: a slice bought fresh from a nearby bakery for the birthday child, to be eaten after dinner. Rose had seen it plenty of times already, but screamed that Brianne could have her slice.

The following day, Rose was stuck with double chores. Brianne seemed to be the only one to have forgiven her, and the other kids teased Rose for crying on her birthday. There had been no cake for anyone at dinner.

Doctor Samuel heard of the incident, and their next session was about it. Rose was reluctant to tell him how her family would make the entire day special for her. How even her father's apprentices would wish her a happy birthday and give gifts to her, as if they were truly her uncles. Her parents would take the day off from their busy schedules to do something fun with her, and later there would be cake. Even when it had been Ienzo's birthday, Rose wasn't forgotten about, and she didn't find it so bad. Yet she had expected to be rescued by her birthday. Her parents couldn't have forgotten that.

Instead, Rose only mentioned that it wasn't fun to her anymore. She just wanted to go home. Doctor Samuel wasn't sure where exactly she was referring to, but seeing as he could not get anything more out of her, he ended the session forty minutes early.

There were no other celebrations until Christmas. After the birthday incident, Rose was guarded and learned to lower her expectations immensely. She was right to do so. Christmas was the annual clothing swap: the younger children would get the clothing that the older kids had outgrown in the past year. There was some candy, but no gifts; the caretakers did not want to favor one child over the other, and all toys and books were communal. They did not belong to any one child in particular. Even so, there were incidents of hoarding throughout the year.

As the year passed into a new one, Rose realized that no one was coming for her. But she did not want to give up on her home. It was much worse than she had thought.

* * *

Rose kept count of the years that passed. Thanks to Brianne, she learned how to ignore the others, and they eventually got bored when insults of "princess" didn't get any attention (but they still lingered). They had to change tactics, referring to her as "loony" due to her continued appointments with a psychologist.

In the fourth year, ten-years-old, Rose was close to becoming "adoptable". It had been a long time since she had spoken of a far-off castle, but the doctor knew that she still believed in it. She had learned to alter her behavior to be quiet about it, but that wasn't enough for him. After much discussion, Doctor Samuel persuaded Ms. Landbaum to let Rose stay for a few hours more at his office.

It started as any other appointment had. Rose was becoming as restless about these sessions as the headmistress. No one seemed to be getting anything out of them lately.

After the greetings and "how have you been", the doctor set aside his clipboard for once and leaned forward in his chair. "Now Rose, I know you have a difficult past. Have you ever wished it were something else?"

"Huh?" She straightened up; this wasn't a typical question for him.

Doctor Samuel smiled. "Well, you must daydream from time to time. It's normal for children. There must have been times where you wished you weren't a princess."

"Well, yeah." Rose shuffled her feet, hating that word. He knew that and used it sparingly.

"Let's have a daydream." He straightened his glasses, but continued to sit rigid. "Lay down. Get comfortable on the couch."

Frowning, Rose did as told. She never needed to lie down to daydream before.

"Now close your eyes, and focus on my voice."

Again, she followed directions. This wasn't what they normally did. But soon she was deep in a daydream.

Rose was the youngest of four girls. Their mother had died while giving birth to her, and elder two, the identical twins Emily and Laura, always blamed her for it. Not only did they lose their mother, but their father spent more time away at work in order to support them and keep the house.

He was a quiet and serious man, and expected his young daughters to be the same. Rose found this difficult, and often was smacked on the head, and sent to the attic bedroom when she began crying. If there was any good about her father, Rose couldn't remember it. The twins seemed to remember a different man.

Then Sylvie, the middle child between the twins and Rose's births, always cheerful and willing to play, began coughing. And coughing. And expelling bodily fluids. She was the first to disappear from their attic bedroom. Emily or Laura went next, leaving the other twin to glare at Rose for not getting sick like they did. Their father never came home from work. At last the other twin had to go as well. Rose tried following her to the clinic, but a nurse took her to the orphanage instead.

When Rose came to, she sat up quickly, nearly falling off of the couch. Doctor Samuel moved to catch her, but sat back once Rose had regained her balance. After a moment to blink and become aware of her surroundings, she broke into tears. Rose had never had a dream so strong that it felt like a long-forgotten memory. It was awhile before the doctor could ask her a question. She recanted her dream to him while he furiously scribbled on his clipboard. In the end, he decided no questions were needed yet. Rose was sent back to the orphanage.

* * *

Brianne was not around when Rose returned, which was a first and made Rose apprehensive already. Instead of playing outside or inside with other kids, she tried doing homework in the large bedroom she shared with a few girls. It was quiet at this time of day, and she had a feeling Brianne would find her easily there.

Much time passed, but little homework was done. Finally, the older girl did appear in the doorway. Rose sat up on her bed.

"Where were you?" Her homework was abandoned as Brianne walked to her own bed, next to Rose's.

"Interview." She flopped down on the mattress.

Rose knew what that meant, and her eyes widened. Interviews were when parents, or people who wanted to be parents, talked to the kid they read about on a paper. Lots of kids got excited when they were called in for one, especially the younger kids. The older kids that had been in the orphanage longer became apathetic after a couple of interviews. Some kids had had a successful one, and left a few days afterward. Goodbyes were celebrated more than birthdays. Those kids never came back to visit or anything.

Looking over at her friend, Rose began to realize that Brianne was considered "highly adoptable". Most parents liked young kids, and Brianne was already thirteen and beginning to "develop", as she would describe in whispers to Rose at night. But she was smart, kind, gentle, and patient. All of these traits would make Brianne a great daughter. Some parents wanted older children that could be more responsible.

"Did you say no?" Rose blurted out.

"You know we can't say no. If they like me, then I have to go. No choice." Brianne propped herself up on her elbow. "But I don't think I would really like it. They have two boys already, and the mom got fixed after the second one, so she can't try to have a girl now."

"So? Why do you have to be adopted just so they can have a girl? That sounds stupid to me." Rose crossed her arms.

"They're offering me a family. That's what we're all trying to get here, remember?" Brianna sat up now, frowning at the other girl.

Arms falling to her sides, Rose was quick to apologize, though mumbling. "Sorry. I just don't want you to leave. How many girls do they want? I can deal with a couple of stupid boys."

"I thought you didn't want to be adopted. Didn't you say your parents would send someone to come for you someday?"

"... Maybe." Rose became confused, remembering the faraway castle and the family that had been there.

Brianne smirked. "Maybe? It's all we heard about in your first year here."

"... Yeah." She never knew her mother, and her father had run off once the twins were dying. There wasn't much to go back to.

"I heard that Doctor Samuel has made your appointments longer. What's that about?"

"Nothin'." Rose shrugged, though her mind was somewhere else.

The older girl studied her for a moment. "I don't like that doctor. There's something weird about him."

Rose nodded. "Really weird. His office is boring. And he talks about boring stuff." Insulting the doctor distracted her from the mess of memories and daydreams in her head.

Brianne was glad to have gotten Rose out of that strange mood, as short as it had been. The dinner bell sounded, though, and they raced off to the dining hall.

* * *

The sessions continued, and Rose became more confused as they went on. Brianne occasionally had to correct her when she recounted something wrong. How was it that the older girl knew of her daydreams, but not what really happened? Or was it the other way around?

Whatever the case, Rose preferred the notion that she came from a faraway castle, as anyone would. The father and sisters were put in the back of her mind; after a couple of sessions, Rose resolved that what was gone was gone, and she had few fond moments with them that she owed almost nothing to the dead. She preferred to think her parents were an adventurous woman and a studious man, and that she came from a mix-matched family full of oddballs.

Awake, Rose usually ignored her confusion and focused on things around her. Memories and daydreams became even more mixed up in her nighttime dreaming, and though the headmistress and the doctor both insisted on a dead family, Rose dreamed of the kingdom more. She became frustrated with others' input and insistence over her memories that she decided to just be silent about it. Brianne, of course, rarely irritated her, and wasn't so shut out.

Older children were allowed to go out into town in supervised groups. Even Rose was allowed to go, although she had needed the extra clearance of Doctor Samuel. Though she began to fight with the other kids again, he decided that outings might quell her aggression. It didn't do children well to be cooped up and isolated. Integration with society may promote proper behavior in such troublesome youths.

Society had a different opinion of the groups of orphans. Many times thefts were reported after their field trips. Some kids were known to be deft pickpockets, despite the fact that they were never caught. The allowance that the headmistress doled out to the good older kids was meager; it would take years to add up to anything. Few kids were considered good enough for it, too. Yet it would take very bad behavior to be kept in the orphanage while others go on field trips.

There was the occasional outbreak of monsters that could ruin such trips, but the law enforcement had surprisingly adapted to deal with that. A siren would sound to tell everyone to go indoors, but there wasn't anything to tell them when it was safe again, so everyone had to assume. Most snuck glances through windows anyway. Rose had little interest in partaking in this world, but she did think monster slaying was a good profession.

For the first time, they were on a field trip to the space port. Rose had no idea how long it had been a part of the town, but she remembered being told of these space ships a couple of years after arriving at the orphanage. At the time, she paid no mind. When she began to think she came from a different world, she was mocked all the more so, though the name "alien princess" never really stuck.

Since then, the town had become a prosperous port, although still dark and dirty. Now that she could see them, Rose took more interest in these ships and where they could go.

They were massive ships of various designs and colors. Some had hawkers, claiming to either carry the best wares or provide the safest passage between worlds. There weren't many passengers coming out of the ships, though. The goods that came out were certainly exotic, and far more expensive than any of the children could afford. Some objects appeared too strange to them, and their use unknown.

Most of the kids continued to ogle the imports at the stalls across the way. Rose continued looking at the ships, and reading what available signs there were. Brianne stayed with her so the supervising caretaker could keep thefts from happening.

"We should take one someday." Rose mentioned, looking closely at ships, despite knowing practically nothing about them. A few hawkers shot looks at her, causing her to keep her distance.

"And go where? Assuming we get the money together to do it." Brianne humored her idea.

"Anywhere. Maybe nowhere. We could just keep flying." Rose shrugged. For a moment, she vaguely recalled, or imagined, visiting an observatory as a little girl. She had needed a stool to stand on in order to look at stars through the massive telescope. Her father had said the stars were different worlds.

The elder girl could tell she was withholding something. "Maybe you could find your kingdom."

Rose nodded. "It would be better than staying here."

Brianne took a moment to respond. "This place isn't so bad."

"What do you mean? We have nothing here. Every world sounds better than this one. We could do so much better somewhere else." Rose scrunched her face up, the same way she had as a little girl.

"This world isn't hopeless. We can make something out of it if we just work hard enough." Brianne explained. "Maybe it's not as bad as you think."

"You want to stay?"

"It's the only place I know."

"So? That's a dumb excuse."

"It's not an excuse!"

Rose jerked at Brianne's outburst. It was the first time she recalled that the older girl had lost patience with her. She had acted similarly when she was younger, and the other kids would mock her home. Rose had forgotten that this was Brianne's home world. It was everyone's home but hers.

"Sorry." She bowed her head. Rose didn't want to be on bad terms with Brianne; she was going to be released from the orphanage soon. They were both uncertain about it. "You're better than this place, though."

"That can change." Rose's apology didn't seem to completely work, but at least Brianne was still talking to her. "We should catch up with the others before they leave. I don't think we're welcome here, either."

Following along, Rose didn't say much else. Brianne would need time before she would forgive her. In the meantime, Rose began planning a way to get on one of those ships and travel where she pleased. Once the field trip was over, she'd try to find books on the ships at the library. They only had one meant for little children, but it showed her enough.

* * *

Clothes were spread out on the bed for inspection. There weren't many articles. In all, they counted for four outfits, one being a simple dress for formal occasions. Not that an orphan has a chance to do something fancy. Though Brianne had the best chance out of anyone.

Rose picked it up and held it in front of herself. She turned to the older girl with a smile. "You're always pretty in this dress."

Brianne smiled half-heartedly from where she sat across the small room. Her hands were busy mending a pair of pants. It was the only time she would have the chance to fix any of her clothing.

Seeing that the dress did not need repairs, Rose placed it into the open bag on the bed. "I've never liked dresses."

"Because you end up ruining all of them with all of your horseplay." Brianne chided her playfully. "The ladies here have a written rule that you aren't to be given any dresses."

"I don't want them." Rose grinned defiantly, then searched under the bed for any other belongings.

"You're such a brat." Brianne shook her head.

The bed's underside was very dusty, but Rose was not under there for long. There was only an old, tattered shoebox. She brought it out into the light and opened it. The contents were various things: spare pencils, old school assignments that Brianne was proud of, and a childhood drawing from Rose at the very bottom. She pulled it out for a closer look.

"You kept this?" She held it up. It was a crude drawing of Rose and Brianne holding hands. Off to the side was a castle. It had been drawn soon after they had become friends. Rose hadn't shut up about her crazy fantasy then. She had hoped that everyone had forgotten about it by now.

"Oh. Yeah." Brianne almost frowned at seeing it. "It was pretty cute of you."

Rose put it at the top of the box' contents. "I don't think we're going to live in a castle."

"No." The brunette agreed, adverting her green eyes to her work. "That won't be us."

The box was placed next to the bag, in case she would want to take it with her. "I don't see why you can't stay here for a couple of years. You're good with the kids. Then we could leave together."

"There's no positions available here. There's more to the world than just this home." Brianne pointed out. She finished her work on the pants and went to look over the other clothes. "Who knows what I will find out there for myself."

"You'll write to me, right?" Rose asked hopefully. She was dreading their separation. Brianne was the only friend she had in this place.

With a stiff nod, "Yeah. Of course."

"And you'll wait for me?"

Brianne stopped packing. "Well, I don't know. If there's an opportunity for me, I shouldn't hesitate."

"But we've always said that we would stick together and help each other out out there." Rose began to worry. "We would live together and live better than this."

"I'm just saying. We don't know what the future holds. You shouldn't hold onto one idea like that. You might get a better opportunity, too." Brianne smiled, shoving the box on top of her clothes and closing the bag.

"I think staying together would still be the best future." Rose grumbled.

"Maybe two years apart will be a good thing. You could work on your temper." The elder girl suggested with a shrug.

Rose snorted. Brianne was the only one to hold her back in the worst cases. The caretakers here had unofficially put her in charge of the younger in hopes that she would copy after the good example. Rose had fought people less frequently and her temper had always been subdued, but it had always been Brianne's doing that kept the peace. Rose was aware of what they were all doing.

"Just try. Is it really so hard?"

"Why can't you just promise me that you'll wait for me?" Rose remained focused on that one bit. They had always planned to stick together, ever since they had become friends. Why was now any different?

Brianne sighed. "Look, I've always been by your side through the worst moments, but you have to learn to deal with them responsibly on your own. You can't lose your temper every time someone decides to be petty. Be the bigger person."

"If I promise to get better, then will you swear that you'll wait for me?" Rose quieted, already trying to be mature like she was.

After a moment of exasperated thought, Brianne gave a nod. "Alright. I'll see how you are in two years."

Smiling in relief, Rose accepted the promise. Brianne had all of her belongings, so they left the room.

There wasn't much more to talk about between them. It took awhile to get to the door, and even longer as many stopped Brianne to say goodbye. Rose stood behind her, feeling dread without knowing why. They had both made a promise. She would come back for her.

As they approached the door, she seemed to speed up in eagerness. Brianne was the best person to come out of this place. She had a promising future, Rose was sure of that.

"You'll still write to me?" She asked again as Brianne opened the door.

"Yeah." The older girl wrapped her arms around Rose. They hugged each other tightly for a moment. "I will."

No letter ever came.


	3. Chapter 3

Rose lapsed in Brianne's absence. She gave up looking for a letter after a year. Her fights became more frequent, and she didn't bother trying to bond with the other older kids. The younger ones had begun to fear her by now.

Her school lessons became more fruitful, as they began to learn about more practical things: how to manage money (the caretakers assumed that all orphans came from parents who prioritized booze), cooking (the older girls weren't desirable for adoption, so they would be trained to be housewives or servant girls), and of course, sex education. The last one was taught in gender-segregated classes to minimize giggling, and hopefully promote abstinence.

Despite being at that age, Rose had had yet to bleed. It was about that time that, through an awkward visit to a doctor, she learned that she never would.

On her sixteenth birthday, she was released from the orphanage as an adult. Having not heard from Brianne, she had given up on the older girl. By then, she had already concocted a plan. With a bag slung over her shoulder, Rose made straight for port.

Her quest for a job was fruitless. It wasn't as though she had any money to pay to board a ship. Passenger and cargo ships both would not have her; she was just a street urchin—they wanted someone more reliable. And older. Rose stopped before she reached the higher end of the port, and turned the other way. She had already gone up the line of ships, asking for employment with each one, and receiving the same scoff and reply each time. Rose began to think that perhaps she should have dressed up a bit more for this. Simple trousers and a button-up shirt weren't impressing anyone.

The other end of the port were for more seedy sorts of ships. It wasn't illegal for them to make landfall; in most cases customs would catch something against regulations, whether it be stolen or illegal goods, or something with the ship's status.

It wasn't ideal, and not the sort of thing Rose had planned on doing. What would she say if she did find her imaginary home? Her desire to be on any other planet than this one overpowered other thoughts.

Rose took some time to look at each ship. The more prestigious ships had newer models than shown in that old library book. These ships were much more familiar, and she knew their specs. Granted, these ships had more wear on them. She couldn't imagine how one in particular even made it to port. Rose would prefer making it through the trip alive.

After some thought, she decided to approach the ship at the last dock. A man sat on a crate outside, leaning against the side of the ship and picking notes on a guitar. He didn't take notice when Rose approached, but was forced to acknowledge her when she didn't go away. He looked at her with worn eyes and frowned.

"Do you have a job opening?" Rose was tired of asking the question, but tried not to show it.

"Nope. I already have a full crew on my hands." The captain tried to dismiss her quickly. Seeing her shoulders slump, he snorted. "Aren't you a little young for this sort of occupation?"

"No." Rose scowled. She had heard that plenty of times already.

The captain resumed strumming. "Lying makes girls turn ugly. If you got a clean record, you'd best keep it that way. Go home."

"I don't have a home." If she couldn't find a job now, where would she stay the night?

He stopped strumming again to give Rose a hard look. "That's not my problem. There's no job for you here. Go to the shelter—they'll find work for you."

"... Fine." Rose readjusted the bag on her shoulder, taking one more glance at the ship. It was meant for cargo, but offered enough space for its crew. She could spot at least two shuttles docked on its sides. Then she began walking from the port. Ships came and went every day. Perhaps the following day would be better.

The shelter was on a crowded and shabby street. It was often busy enough, and plenty of orphans went there when they became adults. Nothing made Rose any different than them.

Passing through the market,she heard her name being called. With a grimace, she turned to find Doctor Samuel had caught up to her, hands full of shopping bags. The very short run had winded him, and it took a moment for him to catch his breath. It was odd to see him out of his office.

"I'm glad I caught you." He offered a smile. Rose was not glad to be caught. Yet for once, the doctor didn't seem that creepy. "Happy birthday."

"Thanks." She mumbled. It certainly beat having locked herself in a broom closet, but still was one of the least happiest birthdays she had had.

"I was hoping I would see you today. Would you like to come to my home and have dinner with me? I thought it would be a nice celebration for you, to celebrate your birthday and your freedom." Doctor Samuel couldn't go long without being creepy. Rose didn't feel like she had much freedom in this. "If you'd like, you can also stay with me until you've gotten your bearings. I have a guest room."

She pointed down the street. "I was going to look into the shelter. They probably have a bed available."

"I won't have a long-time patient staying in a shelter."

"I'm not your patient anymore."

"Regardless, I still want to help you."

She thought for a moment. The doctor adjusted the grips he had on his bags, looking hopeful for once. It didn't take long to occur to Rose that, with her new freedom, she didn't have to listen to anyone. In fact, she could actually say what she wanted to, without punishment.

"No." And with that, she turned on her heels and took off. The doctor, never being fit and encumbered as he was, could not give chase.

* * *

By late afternoon, the captain had left his ship's hull entrance. A balding man had taken over as guard, but he had dozed off. Rose took the opportunity to sneak inside the ship. She found a nook near the corner next to the door, and settled herself on her bag of clothes. Crates surrounded her; they would provide plenty of cover. With luck, no one would have to touch them until they went to another port, in another world. Hopefully that would be soon, before she became hungry or needed the bathroom. This wasn't a thought-out plan, but one that would get her away from Doctor Samuel, the only person here who clung to Rose.

Over time, more crew members returned to the ship. She counted six, including the dozing man. She knew night was coming on, and dozed off herself while in hiding. Perhaps in the night, she could pilfer what she needed.

It must have been late when she woke to the sound of the captain's voice. The balding man followed him in, reporting that nothing out of the ordinary happened and everyone was on board. The captain mentioned leaving. Rose heard the large door of the hull closing nearby, slightly vibrating everything around it. Whatever else the men might have said was lost.

Take-off soon followed unexpectedly. There was a rumble at first, but it quieted to a deep hum, if Rose listened closely enough. She assumed it was the engine room. Once the ship had been in flight long enough, and she assumed everyone had settled down, she crept out of her hiding place.

She began searching the hull for food. It was hard to believe that the last meal she had had was breakfast in an orphanage. Rather than attempt to find a kitchen of some sort on the ship, Rose resolved to search the cargo first.

Soon enough, she found a box of dried meat. She assumed that no one would notice if a handful went missing. The barrels of water were in plain sight, and bottled water sat next to them. Rose helped herself to a bottle. She hoped it wouldn't be too evident of a stowaway. Perhaps the crew would blame each other instead.

Feeling confident and curious, Rose left the hull to explore more of the ship. There were many halls within this ship, and voices carried down their ways. After awhile, she heard the noise of a card game, then turned to go the other direction. It was a much quieter route.

Over time, she came across a washroom. Then she carried on her own tour of sorts. Though she may have read a book on ships, she was fascinated with its interior now that she saw it. Everything was a dark brown metal. The exposed pipes reminded her of another place, but she couldn't quite recall it. Wherever it was, it was far away by now. For the moment, she really wanted to see the engine up close.

"Hey!" A man had appeared at the other end of the hall, catching Rose off-guard. "What the hell are you doing here?"

She sprinted off without any particular direction. Her steps were louder as she ran through the halls and became less careful about alerting others to her. The man was giving chase, yelling along the way. It didn't matter what noise Rose was making.

There were many nooks she could have used as a hiding spot. At this time of night, most of the crew should have been asleep. The engine room had to be around somewhere, and that wouldn't be checked for a few hours. Surely there would be enough machinery to hide behind.

More people became alerted and began appearing in Rose's haphazard path. When she was cornered in one hall, she turned her heels and dashed towards the large man behind her, hoping that she could slip by him with her smaller size. It didn't work that way at all; the man pulled her back by the collar of her shirt and held her in a bear hug. Rose squirmed and kicked, but it had no effect.

"Just a girl." An older woman sighed after entering and assessing the situation. Her presence now made the hallway too crowded for the three inhabitants.

"Check her." The large man had some strain in his voice.

"Wouldn't you feel any weapons if she had any? You're squeezing her enough to send the life out of her." The woman chided. She gave in after another moment, but Rose chose to bite the man's arm at that moment, and he released her in shock. She fell to the floor, but quickly got up and scrambled past the older woman. Another woman blocked the end of the hall, though, and simply pushed Rose back when she stumbled close enough. Then that woman put Rose in a much more practical hold, wrapping her arms around the girl's, and putting her hands behind the younger's head. Rose couldn't bite her anywhere.

"Well? Check her now." The woman was less patient than her elder, who hurried over to pat Rose down. She couldn't kick very well or thrash her head about in this hold. No weapons were found on her.

The man pulled a small gun from his side. "Let's see what the captain says about this."

Following his lead, the older woman pulled a gun from her side as well. The woman holding Rose spoke in the girl's ear. "Walk with us, or I make sure you never walk again." She let go of her, but something sharp was placed against her lower back, nudging her spine. Rose began walking as the other two left the hallway.

The ship seemed like a maze now, but soon they came into a galley. The large table had some plates and cards on it; the card game Rose had heard must have stopped when she was spotted. No one approached it to continue. The man went to an intercom on the wall to call the search off and assemble everyone to the galley.

At the same time, the captain—the same tired-looking, guitar-strumming man who had watched over the ship from that afternoon—entered hastily. Seeing Rose, he groaned and rubbed his face.

"I told you to go home!" He snapped, then waved his hand dismissively at the three crew members. "Put them away. She can't do nothing now."

Two more men entered, surprised that Rose was their stowaway. She was grateful to feel the blade leave her back. The captain slumped into a chair at the head of the table. His brown hair was a mess, as if he had been sleeping when this all started. Those who had caught Rose looked like they hadn't gone to bed yet; two of the new men were barely clothed. They were all much older than her.

"We'll have to turn around." The captain said, as if to himself.

One of the almost-naked men shook his head. "We can't. Doing that would put us behind our delivery schedule. It would waste too much time."

"We can't afford to anger clients." The elder woman added. She looked to be the oldest among them, with the most grey in her hair.

With a grimace, the captain conceded. "Alright," He stared harshly at Rose, "Next world we dock in, you're getting off. Don't think you can try this little stunt again."

He had a point. Waiting to get onto this ship had been difficult enough, as well as staying hidden. It could be harder to achieve in another world, whatever world it was. Rose didn't want to leave the ship now.

"I'm useful." She spoke up.

Their first answer was laughter. She turned red from it, realizing just how stupid that sounded. She was just a kid to them.

"We don't need a maid, though one would be nice!" The large man chortled.

"We don't take kids." The captain was much more sober about the ordeal. "I don't care what you've read in those story books. This ain't a nice life, and definitely not something someone chooses first."

"I don't have anything where I came from." Rose argued. "I don't got much choice back there."

"That attitude isn't helping you any." The captain muttered.

The elder woman frowned. "Perhaps we shouldn't drop her at the next world. Not with the kinds of stories that come out of there."

"She is kinda on the small side. She could be useful." The balding man mused. At least some crew members were seeing Rose's side of things.

Shaking his head again, the captain sighed. "Who's in charge of hiring again? That'd be me. Just throw her in a room 'til I make a decision."

With a "yessir", the woman grabbed Rose's bicep and pulled her out of the galley. The conversation became much quieter, until she couldn't hear it at all. They walked through a few hallways again, but Rose was beginning to get the hang of it. She was pretty sure that rooms were below the galley. The woman opened a door and shoved her inside.

"Can I have my bag? It's near the door in the hull." Rose had a feeling she shouldn't ask for it of this woman.

She was answered with a sneer. "We'll think about it." Then the woman shut and locked the door.

* * *

There was one small window to watch space go by, but no clock to tell Rose how long she had been in this room. She could only assume that the ship had not been turned around, and they were remaining on course. At one point, she had gone to sleep; there wasn't much else that she could do. Rose slept long enough to be hungry again when she woke. She woke when the door finally opened, startling her with its noise.

The captain, looking rested but still irritable, stepped in. Rose stood from where she had sat on the bunk, bristling. However, her slim figure and height were not intimidating to a man that was larger than her. The captain came close enough to jab a finger towards her. Though she had been taught not to look men in the eyes, Rose stared defiantly back at the bloodshot brown eyes sitting atop of baggy lids.

"Listen good: I'm giving you one shot at this. You do as I say, and you don't get in the way. Any slip ups, or you don't keep that attitude of yours in check, and we drop you off on the closest planet we come across. Got it?" The captain's breath still reeked of the previous night's alcohol.

"Yessir." Rose grumbled, revealing a bit of that attitude as she was spoken to like a child. He lifted his brows slightly in warning.

He stood straighter and clapped his hands, taking on a completely different demeanor. "Well, that's settled. I'll take you to the hull to get your things, and some breakfast in the kitchen. I'm assuming you can cook."

"Yessir." Rose repeated herself, realizing there were more conditions to her stay than the captain was telling her. But for now, she followed along, though she vaguely knew her way around the ship already.

She didn't offer much for conversation, and the captain didn't prompt her. She looked around as they walked, well aware that he was watching for any sudden moves in the wrong direction. Yet they retrieved her belongings without a mishap. They returned to the room to drop off the bag; apparently it was now Rose's room for the time being, as the captain had warned. The trip to the galley was just as eventful.

They seemed to have missed breakfast. Assuming that the captain wanted to continue moving, Rose settled for some bread and water, though she would have preferred something more substantial. He made himself a mug of coffee. She didn't take long to eat, and they began moving again.

"What's your name anyway?" The captain asked, still nursing the mug.

"Rose."

"Hm. Pretty."

After a few more twists and turns on a path Rose had not taken before, they arrived at the engine room. She tried not to show her interest in the room, though much of it was unfamiliar from what she had read in books. This ship seemed newer.

"Cliff?" The captain called over the monotonous hum of various machinery. There was the clatter of tools hitting the floor, followed by the appearance of one of the men from the night before—this one was an average build. He looked Rose over with bulging eyes, as if he had forgotten all about her.

"See if you can put..." The captain began, then paused as he tried to recall.

"Rose." She stated, knowing he wouldn't remember.

"Right. Put her to work doing something." The captain clapped the other man on the shoulder, then turned on his heels and left.

Cliff wasn't happy to have Rose dumped on him like this, and spent a long minute thinking of what she could do before leading her further into the room, walking a narrow path between two machines.

They came upon another man crouched on the floor, on the other side of a machine. Rose recognized him as the one who had caught her the night before. He was less than pleased to see her again when she and Cliff bent down to his level.

"Captain said to give her work to do. Got any ideas?" Cliff had to raise his voice over the din.

The man glanced at Rose with a frown. "Have you ever worked with machines before?"

She shook her head. "I've read about these in books, though."

He scoffed. "Lot of good that'll do." He dug around in a box next to him, then tossed a greasy rag towards her. "Wipe stuff down. It helps keep things running right."

Rose gingerly picked up the rag, and the two men had a laugh at her obvious disgust. Yet she stood and began to walk around, wiping grease on machines. It certainly wasn't making them any cleaner.

"And make sure not to get squelched between anything!" The large man yelled before returning to his own work.

Besides the dirty rag and useless task, Rose did not mind being left alone to wander the room. As far as she knew, the men weren't keeping a close eye on her, so she could marvel at everything. The room was bigger than what the books had described, and there were more machines in it as well. The machines also looked completely different from what she had expected. Rose took her time wiping everything, though she avoided moving parts that would obviously remove her fingers. Wouldn't it be better to do this cleaning when the ship was at port, and the engine room wasn't running? She decided not to bring that up.

By the time she was nearly finished, Rose's hands had turned black from the rag. Luckily, the machinery didn't look any worse; they already had stains of their own. All that was left was the heart: the star shard's case.

The only book Rose could get a hold of at the rundown library about ships was a children's book, and it never went into too much detail on how star shards actually worked. The illustrations were also crude, and looked nothing like the real thing, as if the authors and illustrators had never seen one, but heard descriptions. Rose was surprised to find that star shards were more than just a simple yellow star shape. While the body was blue, the inner core and its encompassing circle was green, and a tail of the same hue broke through the body. It laid quietly in its case, which obviously didn't need to be cleaned with a greasy rag.

The star shard looked familiar; Rose began to remember having held one, and the anger of the dark woman who owned it. It had taken her to Montressor, and left her there. It had to be a memory, if Rose could recognize the star shard so well now.

"Boo!"

She jumped, throwing the rag into Cliff's face. He quickly stopped laughing to swat the thing away, but the other man laughed even harder from where he sat with his tools. Rose found the joke less than amusing.

"Don't snoop around so much." Cliff stated.

"I wasn't." Rose replied quickly. "What's it doing in here, anyway? Isn't it better in the bridge?"

"There's one there already." He snorted. "You think one little shard's enough to move this ship?"

"I haven't seen one before." She shrugged, hoping he would give her something else to do and back off.

The next order came from the other man, who looked up from his work, his hands deep in one of the machines. "Hey, girl! Come over here! I need tiny hands!"

Rose approached apprehensively as the man pulled his own hands out of the machine, wiping them on another dirty rag. She peered into the machine, noticing the wells he had been messing with.

"Pull the piston out of that hole there." He instructed, pointing it out. She frowned.

"Doesn't the ship need this to move?"

"Anymore than a crawl, yeah. If we're crunched for time, the shards are pretty much charged up by now." The man shrugged, becoming impatient with her.

After another moment to look into the hole, Rose reached deep in, finding the shaft soon enough. The hole and piston both seemed to be dry, causing a lot of resistance between the two. When Rose finally pulled it out, she slammed her elbow into the other side of the chamber. The men only cared that she got the piston out, and she handed it over.

The man gave a grunt had he looked at the shaft, where the top of its ring had snapped off. "Gonna have to solder a new piece on."

"Shouldn't you get a new one?" Rose suggested, assuming that that would prevent this from happening again.

"This is still good."

She frowned, but didn't ask more. Maybe he was right, if the ship had gotten this far with it. However far they were by now.

There wasn't much else the men needed Rose for. She could tell by how she was told to polish some spare parts shelved in a corner. There wasn't much point to it, but it gave her something to do while observing the engine room. She thought better of asking questions.

When that was done, they really had no other use for her. Cliff led Rose around the ship some more until they found the elder woman, who assured she would have some use for the girl. Though the woman went as far as learning Rose's name, and referring to herself as Wanda, all she had her do was wash the grease off of her hands. It took many times before Rose's hands were acceptable.

She helped to prepare dinner, but still didn't offer much conversation for Wanda. Luckily, the older woman had plenty to say on her own.

"Cliff and Brutus are alright, but they prefer keeping to themselves in the engine room, and they certainly don't like others meddling." Wanda explained, although Rose hadn't asked about them. "Pretty strange that Reed had you in there right away. He certainly didn't want you along last night."

Rose shrugged as she cut tomatoes, caring only to assign names to faces. Reed, of course, must have been the captain.

"A girl like you should be in school. Traveling right now could put you behind."

"I graduated." Rose had the final marks in her bag of personal belongings, which held everything she had to herself. She remembered that she had been considered bright when she was very young, but her report cards have always said that she passed the minimum requirements.

"Well, do you plan on university? Not many worlds know of one another, much less will accept interstellar students." Wanda joked, but also seemed serious about it. She handled the stove, frying some meat. Rose had already been warned that they didn't always have nice meals here, but they hadn't left port that long ago, and were still full on supplies.

"No."

Rose's reply had been curt; she could feel the disapproval from Wanda without having to look at her directly. There was a long pause between them, then the older woman moved on.

"What do your parents think about this?"

There Rose was stumped. It didn't matter what the parents on Montressor thought; yet if Rose was traveling between worlds now, then it was likely that her imagination had been the truth all along. Both parents, whom were incredibly blurred in Rose's mind now (possibly from handling the memories too much), could still be alive. She had no idea of what their reactions could be—how much did she know about them, after all these years?

The same question from her childhood reemerged: if they were alive, then why had no one come looking for her?

"They're dead." Rose stated, continuing to chop vegetables.

Wanda gave a soft 'oooh', as if she realized what sort of child she was dealing with now. The girl bristled, but said nothing, and let the moment pass.

Dinner brought liveliness back into the galley as the rest of the crew arrived. Rose was the last to grab anything, being the smallest and the least hungry among everyone. She spotted the other woman from the previous night. They exchanged glances that conveyed a mutual dislike for one another. They remained on opposite ends of the large table.

Luckily, Rose was ignored as the adults wanted to talk amongst themselves. She preferred listening to the sparse conversation, anyway. They didn't say much that was important, though.

After the meal, Reed took charge of Rose again. This time, he escorted her to the bridge, which was much smaller than the engine room. She was surprised, knowing that she wasn't a crew member, or even a welcomed guest.

"We're going to make landfall shortly." Reed explained, arms crossed as he watched Rose look out into space. "I want you to stay in here with Kurt, and stay out of trouble. We're not talking with nice people, and I don't need you mucking things up more than they already are. Got it?"

"Yessir." Rose mumbled, focused more on what she could see through the glass. The stars were brighter than what she had seen on land.

Reed frowned, but left her and the pilot, the balding man, alone. The pilot had paid as much attention to Rose as she had to him. However, once Kurt began to perform the landing procedures, she watched his every movement.

"Do you have to watch so closely?" He complained as land came into view. She began looking around the bridge, easily spotting the star shard on a pedestal, much like the one in the engine room. A monitor on the control panel nearby observed the charges of all the star shards on the ship, in their proper alignment.

There were a few scanners to watch, and Rose tried to understand them. They certainly helped with landing, as it was night outside of the ship. Yet it seemed like Kurt didn't need to use them.

"Where are we now?" Rose couldn't see much outside besides dark hills in the distance.

"Just a little world. But we won't see much. I get to babysit you and the ship." Kurt added fake enthusiasm, enjoying this much less than she was.

"Does this have the land-locking hydrolic anchors?"

"Those are standard now."

"And the fast-takeoff procedure?"

"Yup."

"What about the sonic scanner?"

"There's no use for them." Kurt waved her off. "You know, I was told you were quiet and brooding, and I wouldn't mind that."

Rose stopped asking questions, moving away to look around the bridge some more. She could probably surmise most of it, anyway. Kurt only warned her not to touch anything. He did seem content to see her sulking about the place.

Talking a seat in the only other chair in the room, Rose wondered what exactly the rest of the crew was up to. As she watched outside, she noted that this world didn't seem to have a moon. Montressor had had two, but she had grown up believing one moon was the standard for night skies.

Some time passed before a monitor began beeping. Kurt stopped reading a book to check on it. Rose perked up in her seat, but didn't ask any more questions yet.

"I'm going to go for a walk. Just sit right there and don't touch anything." Kurt eyed her suspiciously, then stood from his chair and walked towards the door.

"Yessir." She said. She wouldn't mind being allowed to take a closer look at all the controls without someone there to heckle her. She did just that once he left, taking a seat in his chair. She quickly learned that flying a ship was a lot more complicated than what she had read in books.

It wasn't long after Kurt had left that Rose became curious as to what he was looking for. She assumed that if she just went out for a quick look, she could return before Kurt did. Perhaps there was no problem, and he had just gotten bored of sitting in the bridge with her. He had bored her.

The door wasn't locked. Rose didn't know what direction Kurt had taken, so she chose one and walked. She was beginning to learn her way around the ship fast, and that quickened her pace. Yet at the sound of many footsteps, Rose panicked and squeezed herself behind a set of pipes against the wall. She had forgotten that the crew could return any moment.

As the footsteps approached, their voices were unrecognizable. It wasn't the crew at all. Kurt wasn't even among them. Rose held her breath as three figures passed. They moved quickly.

"The star shards should be charged; we'll warp out before they know what's what." One of them mentioned while still in earshot of Rose. It was obvious that they shouldn't be on the ship, but what they said gave her an idea.

Once they were out of sight, she pulled herself out from behind the pipes and ran in the opposite direction. The only other location of the star shards she knew was in the engine room, and that was easy enough for her to find by now. Rose didn't see Kurt the entire way; she assumed something had been done to him, but had no time to search for him before they would end up who knows where.

Luckily, the engine room had been left open and vacant. She went straight for the star shard, but the case was locked. She didn't think much about it—a wrench was enough to break the glass. She braced herself as she grasped the star shard. With it in her hands, Rose would stop the ship thieves from going anywhere before Reed and the others arrived, and stop being a burden on the crew by going to the world that she was supposed to be in all along.

Yet nothing happened. The star shard glowed dimly in her hands, but did nothing else. Rose hadn't done anything when she had first held one; what did she have to do now to get it to work? She frowned as she watched the star shard for any sign of activity. She tried remembering the world, but that proved to be difficult and muddled and still did nothing to the star shard.

"Hey!"

Rose didn't think that the hijackers would notice if a star shard was out of place, but obviously they had because a man found her holding one. She dashed behind one of the large engines, hearing the crack of a gunshot. There was an opening underneath a section of the engines; she waited for the man to stalk into the room before she crawled through the opening and ran out the door.

She didn't know where else to go for the next star shard, but Rose knew displacing them would further stall the hijackers. She wondered where Kurt and the rest of the crew were.

Though she was faster than the man, he always shot his gun if he saw a glimpse of her. Running aimlessly like this was confusing her. At some point, a woman joined in on the chase. They cornered Rose in the hull.

There were plenty of things to hide behind, and Rose did just that. She still held the star shard close to her chest, in the event that it would randomly trigger and transport her far from here. She frequently moved to new hiding places behind crates as the pursuers continued to search for her. In one particular spot, she saw Kurt through a small gap between crates. He laid on the floor, a dark puddle growing underneath him.

Clutter was sparsely strew about the place. Looking around her current spot, Rose found a sheathed saber. She snatched it up, pulling the sheath off to look at the blade. It came at just the right moment; the woman lept over the crates and landed in front of her. The woman seemed surprised to discover her. Though the gun was aimed at Rose, the woman hesitated.

"Well? Do it already!" The man shouted at the woman, standing where Rose couldn't see him. His order broke the tension.

Rose grabbed the hilt of the sword and jabbed at the woman, slicing her forearm. The gun went off, then was dropped as the woman clutched the cut. The one gunshot seemed to echo thrice more. A red splotch splattered on the woman's chest, some small drops sprinkling on the girl slumped on the floor. The woman fell to the side.

It took a long moment before Rose realized that she hadn't been shot at all. It was completely silent for another moment.

"Rose?"

She stood from her hiding place, tightly gripping the sword with one hand, and the star shard with the other. Reed had returned with the crew, and they all seemed relieved to see her. They were much less shocked than Rose was, although Wanda was struck by the girl's appearance. She ushered her out into the open as everyone else focused on Kurt's body.

Wanda took Rose by the elbow and led her out of the hull. They walked to Rose's room, where the older woman instructed her to change her clothes. Rose gave up the star shard, but she wanted to keep the sword. Wanda didn't seem to mind either way. She left her alone to put the star shard back in place.

Most of the blood droplets had landed on Rose's clothes, but she used the back of her dirty shirt to wipe at her face anyway. She also wiped the blade off, which had gotten some blood on it. After changing her clothes, she was about to wander the ship in search of the others, but the vessel lurched, suddenly taking off and gaining speed much faster than it should have. She fell to the floor and against the bed. It was a couple of minutes before the ship slowed down enough for her to stand and regain her feet.

By the time Rose was steady, Reed came into her room. He didn't have any trouble walking, focusing on her with arms crossed again. He was straight to business. "What happened?"

She recounted the events, from what she knew of them. Though it had all seemed random to her, Reed didn't show any surprise at it. At the end, he nodded and stared at nothing for a long minute.

"Well, you've had your first taste of the real worlds." He said, "These are the sort of things we deal with. It's what I was warning you about. We'll land again in the morning to deliver Kurt to his family, and I'll let you off there."

Rose shook her head. That wasn't the world she wanted to be in, and it had been difficult enough to find one ship to sneak onto. Any other crew would have ditched her somewhere already. "I want to be on the crew, equal pay and everything."

Reed scoffed. "You almost got killed tonight!"

"You wouldn't have a ship if I hadn't done anything."

She had a point, and he knew that. Reed thought to himself for a moment. "I guess you did well, all things considered. We will need someone to replace Kurt. You aren't exactly qualified or skilled in anything, though. I don't hire kids."

"On legal papers, I'm an adult. I graduated school and got kicked out of the orphanage for being too old." Rose countered. "I'm not a kid anymore."

He snorted again. "If you say so. I could still let you go for any reason if I hire you. If I'm just having a bad day, for instance, or you start with that attitude of yours again. You wouldn't be able to do a thing about it."

"Yessir." Rose nodded. Reed frowned, knowing that there was no way out of this one.

"Alright. We'll do the paperwork after we deal with Kurt. You'd best get some shut-eye before we land." He shook his head, though she was certain she had given him a solution. "That was pretty risky—grabbing the star shard like that. Those things can activate whenever they will if you don't know how to use them. You could have ended up in even more trouble than you were."

She didn't offer a reply, and he left the room on that note. She wondered why the shard hadn't activated to take her to where she belonged. With a sigh, Rose followed Reed's suggestion and laid on the bed.

* * *

The crew stayed on land for a couple of days to attend the funeral. Rose still had to have someone with her; they didn't quite trust her yet. She had thought that she had proven herself. In any case, there wasn't a lot to do in the world, especially since she hadn't been paid yet.

Once the crew left the world, it was back to work. Reed seemed to be the only one who knew how to fly the ship. Rose learned that the saber was Wanda's: she had won it through gambling, but preferred guns, so she let the girl have it. The angry woman—though she still disliked Rose and Rose likewise disliked her—confronted the girl about it one day, when she caught her using the wrong sort of rag to polish the blade.

"You're ruining it." The woman tried to snatch the sword from her, but Rose held it close to herself. "Do you even know how to use it?"

"I know enough." Rose replied grumpily. She thought she had heard that the woman's name was Trish. She was volatile, but helpful, according to Reed.

After a second, Trish grabbed Rose's wrist before the girl could step away. "Come with me."

They went into the hull, which was more spacious because they had unloaded some cargo recently. Trish shoved her forward a few steps, and pulled out her own sword from her side. She always made it a point to show off that she was armed; this was another thing that Reed considered to be a "pleasant quirk". Rose raised her sword.

"You're standing wrong. Do what I do." Trish demonstrated, planting her feet a ways apart from each other. Rose had to mimic her, adjusting the sword in her hand as well. Yet Trish didn't like that either. She jabbed at the girl, causing Rose to break her stance to dodge. "At least you know to remain light on your feet, but you could have deflected. Take a stab at me."

Rose wasn't interested in taking a lesson from Trish, but she would take the chance to thrust her sword at the woman. However, Trish easily knocked it aside with her own. She also slashed at Rose, causing her to stumble and fall to the floor. Trish rolled her eyes.

"Were you not paying attention? I'll show you again."

Getting back into position, Rose went along with the lesson. Once she seemed to be getting the hang of it, Trish would move faster, add in extra footwork, or respond with counterattacks. Rose blundered each time. It felt as though she was starting all over again.

These lessons would be reoccurring during her time on the ship. Small injuries were normal, and were supposed to build up her tolerance for pain (or so Trish said). Rose only looked for the opportunity to best her.

* * *

At first, she only had a small part in the jobs the crew took. She was stuck with someone, usually Reed or the mechanics, but she was paid regardless. It was the first time Rose had earned money, and she thought of many ways to spend it, yet she ended up saving most of it.

When flying between worlds, and not training with Trish, Rose was sent into the engine room. Since she had smashed the case for the star shard, Cliff took it upon himself to show her how to pick at locks. As both men of the engine room suspected, her small hands were useful in that endeavor.

When it came to their breaks on land, Rose still had to be watched. Wanda took charge of her, and together they went to a shooting range. Having a preference for swords, and since Wanda only paid for one round for her, Rose ran out of bullets quickly. Guns were complex to her. Wanda was happy enough that she could point and shoot; she was glad to focus on the several rounds she had bought for herself.

"I'd rather die by bullet than a stab wound, or anything else while we're on that topic." Wanda mused as she reloaded her gun. "None of that waiting around, slow and painful business. Not many my age get to die peacefully in their sleep, you know."

Rose couldn't tell if Wanda was talking to her or herself. Either way, she didn't want to reply.

Taking aim, Wanda became more aware of her audience. "But you're too young to think about death. It's a shame that you've seen it already."

"That's life." Rose mumbled, assuming that the elderly woman wouldn't hear her.

"Don't tell me you know more about life than I do. My shithead son was born before you. I've been around longer than you think." With that, she pulled the trigger. Across the way, a tin can fell off of the shelves.

"Wouldn't you want to be with your family?" Rose had never thought of Wanda as a mother. No one ever mentioned that she had family, so the girl had assumed there wasn't anyone, or a home that Wanda belonged to.

"Sometimes distance is the best way to get along." Wanda shot off another bullet, but missed. "My husband has been dead for a few years now. My son wouldn't leave me alone since. What woman wants to be coddled by their own child? He probably wants my money and my home. He can have the latter."

She gave a short laugh, shooting again. This time she hit another can. Rose stayed silent in hopes that Wanda would change the subject. The thought of a parent eluding their child gave her an uneasy feeling. All things considered, Wanda could just threaten her son with a gun.

"I think that's where you and I have something in common: we don't like to sit still for long." The old woman shot again, and hit another can off of the shelves. "Unfortunately, that's what most old folks like me do. It kills us faster."

"Did Reed give you a hard time when you wanted to join the crew?" Rose snorted, shrugging off Wanda's dry humor.

"Not at all. I bargained with casserole, and he hired me immediately." The older woman shot the last of her round with a smile. "And unlike the rest of them, you don't need to get me drunk to tell you my life story."

Rose wasn't sure if that was meant to be a prompt to get her to say something about herself. Yet Wanda had already reached her own conclusions in their first conversation. Instead, Rose focused on the others while Wanda was reloading her gun.

"Is that what they're doing now? Drinking at a bar?"

"Probably. Reed does performances, but they give him free beer for them." The gunslinger shrugged, then widened her stance and took aim again. "We'll catch up with them once I'm done here."

"Have they told you their life stories?" Rose joked, now a bit interested.

The first shot only grazed a can. "Of course, although they don't have much to tell. And it's not my business to tell."

With that said, Wanda concluded their conversation so she could focus more on this round. As she had said, they did go to the bar once she was finished, but it was not as fun to Rose as she had expected. It was loud and smelt like body fluids. Though she now understood why she had seen Reed plucking at his guitar around the ship often. Despite the free beer, he was able to sit on a stool on a stage, never slurring or messing up the notes.

The others were at a round table in a corner. Wanda and Rose quickly joined them. Like the other patrons, Brutus and Cliff were loud and sloppy. Trish was relaxed, a smile plastered on her face. Brutus was shoving small photos of his children in everyone's faces, the youngest still in swaddling blankets. More beer was brought to the table. When the waitress left, Wanda let Rose have a sip of hers. The girl gagged as it burned going down, entertaining the rest of the table. It was the last attempt at drinking she did. She sat soberly while Brutus rambled about his kids, Cliff mocked Reed's singing, Trish giggled, and Wanda seemed to just encourage their behavior.

Last call came and went before Rose knew it (even if it had seemed like an eternity that she was sitting amongst drunken people). Reed stumbled as he tried walking off of the stage; she and Wanda helped him back to the ship as the sun was beginning to peak over the horizon.

* * *

Since Rose's first day, there hadn't been any more deaths. The jobs the crew did seemed less dangerous, especially if she was allowed along. Over time, she seemed to have a place on the ship, even if it was all over the place. Even Trish eased up on her. Rose didn't forget about going home, but she also enjoyed having a job.

After awhile, Reed would ask her to join him in the bridge, where she simply watched what he did. Eventually he showed her the shuttle attached to the ship, choosing to take her for what he called "a small job".

They entered the shuttle through a hatch, climbing down a ladder into a closet-like space. Reed unlocked it and entered the shuttle. Rose followed along, once she figured out how to close the hatch in the roof.

It was small and dark. There was a hull door next to the hatch, which Reed closed the door to as Rose looked around. Three oxygen tanks stood next to the hull door. As everything was against the walls, the floor was an open space.

Reed went to the controls in the front. The windshield was the only window in the ship. There was only one chair for the pilot, too. Rose followed after him again, noting the different controls in this much smaller space ship.

"What's that other closet back there?" She looked back into the ship. There was another cramped-looking closet space across from the hatch.

"Bathroom." Reed didn't bother to look has he punched in the ignition sequence. "These shuttles are like our lifeboats. Fully stocked, a person could live in these for a few days at a time without having to land in a world. Though it's not that good on fuel mileage, so you would have to stop anyway. You might want to hang onto something while this disengages."

His warning didn't come soon enough, and Rose stumbled as the ship shook and there was a loud shift of metal. It descended slowly, then moved away from the larger vessel. She regained her footing once it was steady. The world they sought took up much of their vision as Reed steered towards it.

Rose watched everything on the control panels as he brought the shuttle into the world's atmosphere. It shook slightly despite all of his adjustments. Once they could see the ground, Reed leveled and stopped it.

"Alright," He stood from the chair and moved aside. "Pop a squat."

"What?" Rose gave him a skeptical look, thinking it could be some sort of prank.

"Sit." Reed urged. "I know you've been watching me in the bridge, so we might as well make use of that fascination. Besides, you need some sort of skill if you want to keep this job and find others. I hired you because I lost my pilot. Picking locks and swinging swords don't look good on resumes."

Needing no more coaxing, Rose took a seat, looking over the controls. Outside, the shuttle hovered over a golden field, one of many in the area.

"Alright," Reed nodded to himself. "Well, go forward. You ought to know that by now."

It was a very obvious task, considering how Rose had watched Reed steer the ship. However, the shuttle's controls seemed much more simplistic. There were less engines, for starters. A ship of this size would only need one star shard as well.

Over the course of that afternoon, Rose learned to maneuver the shuttle, including landing and taking off. Reed explained the ignition sequence a couple of times to her until she could repeat it back and do it herself. She only jerked the shuttle a few times while practicing. Observing Reed had paid off.

Eventually they went back to the larger ship. Rose broke from the world's atmosphere and managed to guide the shuttle back into its port with only a couple of scrapes against the ship. Reed showed her how to latch it onto the larger ship, and then they were finished.

Like the sword practice, these lessons would reoccur when it was convenient. Reed found plenty of jobs that called for the shuttle, and let Rose pilot it most of the time. Though she felt useful in the engine room, she found more enjoyment in flying the shuttle.

After a couple of months, she was ready to take a piloting exam for shuttles and small vessels. A license was required in some worlds—mostly worlds that knew of gummi ships and were developing ports and other accommodations for the newly developed spacecrafts. The exam proctor was not as fun to fly with as Reed, but Rose managed to impress the man and pass.

The crew stayed in the world to celebrate. Instead of the usual bar, they went to a restaurant. There was still alcohol served there, though, and most everyone stumbled on the way out. Rose could walk herself back to the ship; while this world considered her old enough to be a licensed pilot, she was considered too young to drink (and she didn't mind).

* * *

It wasn't long after that things changed. Reed had Rose stay at the ship while he and the others went to pick up cargo for a client. However, a dispute with another crew over said cargo quickly turned into a fight. She didn't know what went wrong, but at the first sound of a gun, she bolted to the scene.

There seemed to be nothing but boulders on this world, which provided convenient cover for the shoot-out. The scene was confusing. It was hard to tell who anyone was while they were trying to stay hidden. Rose first had to take cover herself.

Eventually she was sure she saw Trish sneaking about to disable someone. Swords and daggers weren't very useful in this kind of situation, but stealth was. It couldn't be too hard to do. Rose tried moving to the next closest boulder. When she was successful, she moved onto the next one.

Over the noise and dust, she thought she heard Reed cussing and yelling her name, but ignored him. She knew how to use her saber by now, and watched her head. She felt confident that she could do this. Already she saw someone from the other crew. Rose dashed over to him while she was sure she had the opening.

She caught the man off-guard, grabbing the side of his head and smashing it against the boulder he used as cover. He slumped down, and Rose threw his gun towards where she had last been. Someone would run out of bullets soon.

Further emboldened by her feat, she set her eyes on the next person and moved towards them. She expected to smash this one's head as well, but was surprised when the person turned around just as she reached them. Suddenly, there was a sharp, overwhelming pain in Rose's side and she was forced onto her back. Dust framed her vision of the blue sky as something hot and wet joined the pain in her abdomen. She closed her eyes to brace against the pain, and didn't open them again for awhile.

* * *

There were moments where Rose had almost come-to: she heard the muffled voices, felt hands on her face, and tried to thrash against restraints when something made her abdomen burn. Once that subsided to throbbing pain, there was nothing.

The first thing she noticed when she awoke was that she wasn't in her room on the ship. It was some sort of quaint room that wasn't on the ship at all. Rose noted the wide door in the far corner of the room, and the small window on the opposite wall. The wall she faced had a chart of information, mostly of who was the assigned doctor and nurse, and basic medical instructions as well as Rose's pain status. The bed that she laid on was the focus of the room.

She then noticed that she wasn't in her own clothes under the thin blanket. A tube laid across her face, and there was an IV in her hand. Sensors were also stuck to her chest. All of these wires led to monitors to Rose's right.

Remembering the last moments she had been conscious, she pulled the blankets away and pulled her gown up. The left side of her abdomen was covered by large bandages, completely hiding the damage. Rose fixed herself before anyone could come in.

Eventually, a doctor appeared. She barely said hello before firing off questions, staring at her tablet.

"Are you in any pain?"

"No." Rose was surprised she wasn't, but realized that it was due to the IV.

"Do you remember what happened?"

"Not really."

"Any fatigue, nausea, discomfort?"

"No. What happened?"

The doctor looked up from her tablet, finished with her questions. She moved on to explain, becoming more sociable. "You were shot in very close range by a large-barreled gun. Some of the shots went in deep, and we had to do some intensive surgery to remove them. You're very lucky your friends brought you here as fast as they did."

Rose glanced around the room, vaguely remembering the pain in her side. In the chaos of the gun fight, she hadn't realized what had happened at all. She wondered where the rest of the crew was. Her duffel bag sat in one of the spare chairs by the window.

"We were able to repair the damage done to most of your organs, but we had to remove your uterus. With how underdeveloped it was, it wasn't serving much use, was it? We offer transplants here, so I've already added your name to the wait list." The doctor explained, making it a point to have a polite tone. Nevertheless, it was irritating.

"Take me off the list." Rose demanded. It was bad enough to wake up from surgery, and only to have someone plan another one for her, for something she didn't want. She was fine with how her body was. Considering how she had watched many girls squirm in pain, and some even became very ill, she didn't mind not being included in the monthly agony.

"At some point, you'll want to have children." The doctor tried to persuade her.

"Take me off." Rose repeated. She was certain that she would never want that. She grew up around too many children.

"Alright." The doctor spoke quietly, pursing her lips. She looked at her tablet again, adding some extra stuff. After that, she stood and went towards the door. "I'll see you again tomorrow."

"Tomorrow? Can't I leave sooner?" Rose was already fed up with laying in bed.

"You need to heal up some more before we can allow that. We were able to miraculously save you, but we're not miracle workers." The doctor smiled, and then was gone.

For awhile, Rose sat alone and thought over the events that brought her to this moment. Perhaps she should have listened to Reed and stayed on the ship, but then any one of them could be in her position, or dead. She wouldn't have been able to stop that if she stayed hidden like she was supposed to.

An unknown amount of time passed before Reed arrived. Rose was disappointed to see that he was alone. He smiled, but his eyes showed something darker.

"Hurt, don't it?" He asked, hands behind his back. She had heard that tone plenty of times to judge his mood by it. He had a way of sounding bittersweet while talking. "Normally we take care of bullet wounds ourselves, but you had a pretty big hole in you. All's we had was whiskey to disinfect it. The doctor told us to never do that again. She managed to fix you up, though."

She said nothing. He continued, much less chipper. "I told you to stay with the ship. Why didn't you listen?"

"You needed the help. The ship was fine." Rose mumbled. The doctor hadn't left her in a good mood, either.

"We didn't need help. You only added an extra problem to the situation. You almost got yourself killed." Reed harshly pointed out. "This is exactly why I did not want you on the ship! You're just a kid."

"I am not a kid!" Rose seethed, wincing as the pain killer was wearing off.

He shook his head and held up his hands. "Don't matter. You know the terms you agreed to. I'm letting you go."

"You'd let anyone else stay!" She lashed out.

Reed sighed. "All your stuff should be in that bag. Wanda cleaned your room out."

Rose didn't know what world he was leaving her in, but it seemed advanced compared to their usual choices. At least it wasn't Montressor. She hadn't seen much of the world, but she already knew there was nothing for her here.

"Here." He caught her attention again. He held out a small coin purse. "Consider it severance pay."

She took the coin purse and clutched it tightly at her side. He turned to leave. "Stay out of trouble."

After that, there were no more visitors. Rose's side quickly began to throb, but a nurse soon came to change the IV. She also brought the duffel bag closer to the bed before Rose could get up and hurt herself. Rose placed the coin purse with the rest of her money. It would pay for passage on a ship.

The nurse left some pamphlets for her at the doctor's request, but the newspaper (surprisingly, this world still printed them) was more interesting. She perused the voyage section, reading on what ships were in port for the week, and what they offered. Few were looking for help. Many worlds she had heard of, although few of them she had traveled to. None of them were the world she was looking for, though.

Someone came by to take her order for dinner, although she didn't feel very hungry. Rose had to wonder how long the doctor planned on keeping her in the hospital. If Reed had already left, then who was paying for her to be there?

Dinner was delivered by an old woman with a bowed back. Rose didn't pay attention to her, rereading the voyage section of the paper. She had circled and numbered ones that she was most interested in.

The woman read over her shoulder. "Oh, planning a trip, dear? But aren't you a bit young to be traveling alone?"

"I'm older than I look." Rose lied, then tried to ignore her again.

"There aren't many appealing options, are there?" The woman mused whimsically. "I've seen much better worlds than these. Have you heard of Radiant Garden? Few have in this part of space, and it's a shame. It's such a wonderful world."

Rose finally took her seriously, looking up at her. The place sounded familiar. Maybe it was the one she was looking for. "How do I get there?"

"I'm afraid it's rather complicated. Few know how to get there by ship, and they won't come by here for a long time."

"What is it?" Rose snapped, her side throbbing.

The old woman gave a wry smile. "I know of a way, and it would help you first to find some manners."

It took a moment for Rose to lower her voice; she hated grovelling. "Please tell me the way."

"Alright. Why don't you eat and rest up first? I can tell you everything you need to do once night has fallen." The woman sounded pleased, at least. Perhaps she was waiting for her shift to end.

"I've had plenty of rest already." The shoot-out had occurred in the afternoon, but it was evening in this world already. Rose hated to think she had been unconscious for over 24 hours.

"Manners, dear. Believe me, you could use a little more."

"Fine." She pulled the bedside table closer to herself and picked at her food. She still lacked an appetite. It was ridiculous to trust some old woman who wasn't part of a crew at all, but any tip was worth listening to. Rose wasn't going anywhere soon.

Giving up on dinner, she did begin to feel tired. She was also tired of rereading the newspaper, but there was nothing else to do. Sleeping would pass the time before the old woman returned with directions to that Garden place. Once Rose had those, she wouldn't have to ever think about Reed and his crew again. They probably wouldn't think of her, either.

She wasn't dead weight—he didn't have to fire her for that. However, she was too exhausted to get angry. After rolling onto her unhurt side, she surprisingly fell asleep quickly.


	4. Chapter 4

She assumed it was the pain that woke her up. The bed also felt harder somehow. When Rose opened her eyes, she found that the whole room was different: it was dark, with only an oil lamp on a nearby desk to light the whole room. The adjacent bookshelf hadn't been in the hospital room, either.

It took effort to get off of the bed, partly because Rose had been tucked in so nicely. She pressed a hand to her side, as if it was going to dull the throbbing somehow. It felt hot, and she hoped that it wasn't forming an infection.

Rose used the bed and other furniture to balance herself as she approached the door. It irritated her how slow she had to move, and she pushed herself to walk faster. It was a small relief to see that her duffel bag was tucked in a corner in front of the bed, though. She stopped to slowly change from the hospital gown into her own clothes. She pulled the bandages away from her side, revealing the redden skin and stitches underneath. Rose didn't look at them too long. Changing her clothes had taken a lot more effort than usual.

Beyond the door, the hall was just as dark and nondescript, although an occasional torch glowed green on the walls. Rose chose a direction and used the wall to help herself walk. Sweat formed on her brow as she realized how big this place was. It couldn't be a dream—not with the pain and sweat.

The world had seemed boring enough: Rose should have assumed there was something else to it. That old woman probably didn't know what she was talking about, anyway.

At the end, Rose found a flight of stairs. She winced as she flopped herself on a stone step, needing a break. For such a big place, there wasn't anyone around.

She might have taken a nap on those stairs; she had laid her head back on a higher step. She jerked it up when she heard a woman's voice coming up the adjoining hallway. She saw the black robe first, then looked all the way up to the sharp, green face.

"There you are!" The woman seemed surprised to find Rose there of all places. She knew her face, and tried sitting up straight, but fell back against the wall. The woman knelt closer. "What is it? Let me see."

Rose tried to swat the woman's hands away from her side, but her own arm moved languidly. The woman hovered her hands over the wound. A green mist formed over the area, ebbing the pain. Once the pain was gone, Rose sat up freely. The women frowned.

"Dear, let me finish on the scars."

"No." Now she could swat her hands away. "They're fine."

The woman stood to her full height again, clutching a thin staff topped with a small green orb. "So be it."

Rose stood up, hating the way she was looked down upon. The woman watched her, then finally spoke again. "Now, you must be hungry."

Now that the pain was gone, Rose realized how right she was. She hadn't been able to eat much at the hospital. With a nod, she followed the woman through the dark hallways, trying to figure out how she knew this woman. It wasn't a good reason, but considering that the pain in her side was gone and she was being offered food, Rose went along with her for now.

They soon came upon a dining room, although it wasn't much more than a table and chairs. There was already a place set with a full plate. It was the only one, but Rose was too hungry to question much more about it. She sat down unceremoniously and helped herself. She half-minded the table manners she had been taught.

The woman let her eat in peace. She went to sit at the head of the table, her staff leaning against her chair. Rose found it odd that her feet never made a sound as she walked around. Perhaps the big black robe muted them.

"It took simply ages to find you. I've been worried." The woman smiled, but something about it seemed off. "It looks like I couldn't have come to your rescue at a better time."

Rose swallowed. "What are you talking about?"

"Aren't you wondering just how you came to be here? I found you on that world. It took quite a bit of magic to move you safely to this one while you slept."

"Magic?" The girl was skeptical. The only magic she knew was obscure and subtle: star shards were unexplainable by science, and so they used magic. She had been to other worlds where magic worked just the same. Only a different sort of magic could transport her without the aid of a ship.

"You must have seen some in your travels. Although I'm capable of much more than you have seen."

Plate mostly empty, Rose pondered over the woman. Where had she seen her before? Her height would give her away; not many women were so tall. And that she had black horns on her head—of the many different people Rose had seen, she had not seen such long horns before. Something about this woman gave her an uncomfortable feeling in the pit of her stomach. There was something dreadful about her.

Obviously Rose had been staring for too long, for the woman spoke again. "Is something troubling you, my dear?"

"Why'd you bring me here?" She could think more clearly now that she wasn't hungry, and questioning the woman would help to place her.

"You looked to be in a spot of trouble. You wouldn't have ever been able to go to where you wanted on that world." The woman answered with a small frown.

"The Garden-" That wasn't it. What had that old lady called it?

"Radiant Garden." The woman corrected her, "It's no wonder you were never able to find it, if you couldn't remember its proper name. Though I'm afraid you'll never find it. It no longer exists."

"What are you talking about?" Her brows furrowed. How did a world suddenly not exist?

"It fell to darkness. Don't you remember? You were there."

Rose found it difficult to recall. All that came up immediately was the family she didn't want, and who hadn't wanted her either. However, since leaving Montressor, she knew them to be fake: they couldn't have happened. Rose had been taken to that world by a star shard—the same sort that powered Reed's ship and hadn't done a thing in her hands. Before that, though, was blurry.

Silence fell between them. A couple of minutes passed before the woman decided it would go no where. "Come. I know how to help you."

They both stood from the table. Rose tried to remember the woman's name as she was led again through the place. She still couldn't figure out what sort of place she was in. The woman hadn't explained herself at all—only putting the focus on Rose herself.

Coming upon the stairs again, they climbed. And climbed. Rose hadn't bothered to count the flight of stairs at first. She had no idea what floor they came upon when they entered a large room.

Like the rest of this place, it was dark, save for some green-lit torches and candle holders placed here and there. A long curtain covered a portion of a wall; Rose believed it hid a door behind it. Her eyes were drawn to the center of the room, where a green crystal ball sat upon a small table.

The woman also had her eyes set upon the table, and took a seat in the accompanying chair. Rose stood near the stairs.

"Come sit." The woman gestured, summoning a chair from a dark corner to the opposite side of the table.

"I don't need you to tell me my fortune." Rose narrowed her eyes at the set-up.

The woman frowned in disapproval again. "Manners, dear."

She continued to hesitate. Many people had told Rose to check her attitude, but the old woman on that world had admonished her with that exact phrase. Both women were about the same height, although this one looked ageless.

"You were that old woman." Rose knew it had to be true. "On that world. You said you knew a way to Radiant Garden."

"And I've told you that it fell to darkness, no longer existing. If you would sit, I could fix your memories so that you would know that." The woman reasoned. "All of your questions will be answered."

Though she had a bad feeling, Rose joined the woman at the table. The woman coaxed the crystal ball with her fingers. It brightened, the clouds inside becoming agitated.

"Place your hands on the glass."

"Why?"

"It's the only way that it will reach into your memories, dear."

"This is stupid."

"Do as I say." The woman was beginning to lose patience.

With a slight roll of the eyes, Rose put both hands on the sides of the glass ball, towards the base as to not obstruct her view. The clouds began to settle again.

"Now try to remember."

Memories came easier, as if drawn by the crystal ball. The clouds cleared, showing five-year-old Rose wandering the dank streets of Montressor, asking adults where the castle was.

"No, go further back."

Whatever had blocked Rose from remembering before was lifted with the help of the crystal ball. It didn't feel as though she was digging deeper, but the ball was boring into her in search for the memories. The image soon blurred into another: little Rose was kneeling along with a blurry woman at the main entrance of a castle. The woman in black appeared before them.

Rose jerked back, and in the process something snapped from the crystal ball. The force of the shock caused her to fall out of the chair. The woman looked down at her with a quirked brow, irritated.

"You killed her." Rose sputtered. She finally realized where she had come in. "My mother—you killed my mother!"

"No, no, my dear," She shook her head, speaking gently. "The Heartless took her before I could intervene. I was only able to save you. If you would sit still, the crystal ball would help you remember that."

Rose stood from the floor, but didn't approach the table again. She regretted having left her sword in the room she had woken in. She had no clue how to get there to retrieve it.

"Sit, girl. There's more for you to remember before you can move on."

"I remember enough." She had nothing to do anything about it, though.

The woman stood, clutching her staff. "Insolent girl! You'd do well to show your host some respect!"

She lifted the staff, the orb glowing. She reached out to Rose, and then things went dark again.

* * *

It had been a normal day; no one would have suspected anything sinister to take place. Certainly not a five-year-old like Rose, although her active imagination was known by most everyone in the castle. The most famous of her claims was that Aelus was a giant, and he surprisingly played along with her. Everyone also had to laugh off Rose's accusation that Xehanort was an evil, brain-sucking alien, and then scold Braig or whoever had such a terrible influence over her.

Yet even Rose, who assumed that she was very vigilant of the going-ons of the castle, was completely unaware that day. She had had her lessons with her tutor, played in the castle gardens (followed by the necessary bath), had dinner with her mother, and was read a bedtime story by her as well. It was a normal day for her, except her father's apprentices had been missing. The everyday functions of the castle still went on, though.

Then night came, as well as the monsters. Rose's mother had pulled her out of bed, through the castle, and out into the streets as they tried to escape the darkness coming from the castle. Rose either ran or was carried. They ran and ran, but it didn't matter as the monsters soon overtook them. She was pulled out of her mother's arms and discarded as the monsters pounced on the woman. When a sudden force of darkness scared the monsters off, all that remained was a heart that floated into the sky.

* * *

Rose found herself in the home of the fake family again, although now older than five. The girls –she couldn't remember what their names were—only sat up in their beds and stared at her. Leaving the room, Rose found the father downstairs, staring in the same hard way the girls had. Suddenly, he changed into another man, and back again. He was both the horrible father and Doctor Samuel in the same moment, features constantly shifting.

A voice called for Rose. It broke her from the harsh stare, allowing her to flee the scene.

* * *

Her fleeing had turned into tossing and turning, until hands restrained her. She only wanted to fight against that as well.

"Rose."

At the sound of that voice, Rose laid still. She hadn't heard it in a long time, but immediately knew who it was. She opened her eyes to find herself in her real childhood bedroom.

Her mother was there, her heart-shaped face clear as day in the darkened room. It had to be late at night, but judging by how straight and smooth her mother's dark brown hair was, it wasn't too late yet. She sat at Rose's side, brushing messy strands out of the adolescent's face. She gave a smile, one that was reserved for private moments between parent and child. Her dark eyes, usually considered sharp, also softened, just for the girl.

Rose settled down, putting the bad dream behind her. Her mother leaned in to kiss her cheek. It burned.

* * *

Rose woke again in the dark bedroom. This time, she was truly awake. With the pain absent from her side, she knew the whole thing with the strange woman wasn't a dream. She scratched at her left cheek absentmindedly as she got up and went to her duffel bag. The hilt of her sword stuck out. Attaching it to her side, Rose left the room to wander again.

She took a new path, and found herself in a large room. This one had a huge round table. The woman had her back towards Rose, but turned to face her. She looked upon the girl expectantly as she approached.

Swallowing some pride, Rose mumbled, "I'm sorry for accusing you."

"So you've finally remembered. Your mind had a strong barrier around that specific memory. It seemed that you didn't want to remember, and who can blame you?" The woman was pleased with the apology. "You were inconsolable while I had you."

"I don't remember that." Rose frowned. She could only reason that the woman in black was the one who saved her from being eaten.

"It's like I said—you were so heartbroken. And you didn't witness what your father's apprentices had done to him." The woman added. "It's tragic to have one's family turn on them."

"Is that what happened?" There would be no way for Rose to remember; she had been five.

"Yes. The apprentices carried on your father's experiments when he stopped. You were much too young to know anything about that." The woman was pleased to tell the story. "They dabbled too deep in the darkness without knowing what they were doing. No one could stop them. They paid the price in the end, but not before your parents."

Rose thought on the four men she had once considered uncles, and the boy she had begrudgingly accepted as her adopted brother. She hadn't thought of them in so long that it seemed like a long-forgotten dream. Surprisingly, she didn't mind that they were dead now.

She tried to remember the time after her mother's death, when this woman in black had taken her in. It was a blank in the sequence of her memories. Rose tried to remember her name.

"Mal... Maleficant?" She guessed. The woman was not impressed.

"Malefi _cent_ , dear. I'm glad you almost remembered that."

"Don't call me that. It's weird." Rose fussed. "I'm guessing you know my name."

Maleficent was amused by that. "Indeed I do, Rosemary."

It wasn't that much better, but Rose didn't want to let her call her by her assumed nickname. Then again, she had been using it so long that by now that it was her name. Rosemary was reserved for a select few people.

"So how did you know everything that was happening, and how to find me?" Rose decided to go straight back to asking questions. Maleficent always seemed to have an easy answer.

"I was drawn to the darkness in Radiant Garden as the apprentices continued to dabble. I only wished I had investigated sooner." She stated, "It was happenstance that I came across you and your mother."

Rose took a moment to think over those words. Maleficent couldn't be a good person if she was drawn to darkness. Then again, Rose had plenty of experience with not-so-good people. What was all this talk about darkness, anyway? Judging from her own experiences, darkness had to do with dark skies, monsters, and chaos.

"I can tell what you're thinking. Do not assume anything before others have a chance to speak for themselves." Maleficent scolded lightly. "After all, have I not come to your aid twice?"

She had a point. Rose had to acknowledge that. "Then how did you find me this time?"

"I knew where you were most of the time. Though Montressor isn't as majestic as Radiant Garden, it was a safe enough place for you to grow up. I only lost track of you when you were on that pirate ship." Maleficent explained. "I thought the orphanage was best for you. It hasn't left you completely empty-handed."

Rose hated that she had another point. At least she had finished her schooling in Montressor, and knew how to operate ships. She even had a friend during her time there, too.

"I have nothing now." Rose grumbled. Brianne was gone, she lost her job, and there wasn't a home to go back to.

"You have me. I feel I am responsible for you now, after all. Let my home be yours." Maleficent offered with a wave of her hand. "It may not be as grand as you expected, but it will provide for what you need."

Rose frowned as she thought about it. The place was huge, but didn't offer much for her. It was dark, and without windows; no sunlight could get in. What world was she even on? If there was no home to go to, she'd rather get on another ship and continue flying around.

"I don't need it." She shrugged. "And I can take care of myself. I have since I left Montressor."

Maleficent scowled. "You were severely wounded when I found you. I think I know what's best for you. I advise you to take my offer."

"But it would be rude of me to overstay my welcome." Rose pointed out smugly. "This is your home. It's not suited for me."

For a moment, Maleficent considered her with narrowed eyes. Rose knew she had crossed a line, and she waited for the outcome. As helpful as Maleficent was to her, there was something wrong about this situation.

"Alright," She finally said, then smiled. "If you want it your way, then I can't stop you. You can go as you please."

Maleficent turned her back at that. Rose waited for her to say something more, but it never came.

"Well, thanks, I guess. For the memory thing." She left awkwardly, retracing her steps to the bedroom to take her duffel bag.

She thought it was going to take her hours to find the front door, but it was only two floors down from where the bedroom had been. At least, Rose assumed the large open doorway was the entrance. She walked out, finally seeing some sunshine.

The tower—Rose learned that that had been where she was staying—was surrounded by dilapitated, half-built buildings. It also stood in the middle of a blue basin. Further ahead, it turned into a canyon. It didn't look like she'd be able to climb up to the top, so she'd wander for a way out of it. Even further off, there looked to be a long-dead town. There had to be a living one somewhere.

So she picked a direction and began walking. Water wouldn't be a problem, as Rose came across many puddles and small streams about the place. Food was another issue, though.

She hadn't walked for long before something grabbed at her from behind. She whipped around to see one of those dark creatures towering over her. It raised a claw to strike again. Rose dropped her bag and ducked out of the way. She pulled her sword out and took her stance as the monster charged again.

She was then knocked down from the side, as another creature joined the fray. She rolled away from their attacks, and saw a horde approaching fast. She slashed at the two over her, then scrambled up to grab the bag.

A smaller creature got to the bag first, and hissed at Rose. She kicked at it, but that only caused it to bite her ankle. She couldn't shake it off as the others were approaching.

"Begone!"

Just as fast as they had pounced on Rose, the monsters scurried off. Even the small one let go and ran away with the others.

"I see you've gone very far."

Maleficent approached from behind, a wry smile on her red lips. Rose scowled.

"You see, my dear, this is my world, and you won't be going anywhere without my help."

* * *

Maleficent led Rose back into the tower. She moped, frustrated with her performance. She had been taught to fight better than that. She had forgotten how tough those creatures could be in a pack.

"You have a lot to learn before you can fight the Heartless. Your simple sword won't do." Maleficent stated. "They are beings of darkness. Your best chances of beating them would be to learn about that darkness so you can use it to defend yourself in turn. You don't want to end up like your poor parents, do you?"

"I guess you're going to teach me, then?" Rose assumed glumly.

"Who else would be better than myself?" She smiled. "You'll learn more from me than you could on your own. You and I are more alike than you think."

Unfortunately, Maleficent had already been proven right. Although Rose would argue that they were nothing alike in that she was not a twisted witch. However, a lot seemed to work differently on this side of the universe. So she followed along, looking around the place. Not only was it dark, but it was ugly, too.

They returned to the large room with the crystal ball, the orb still glowing despite the absence of occupants. Rose made a face, but she didn't have to be told to sit down this time.

"What's looking at my memories again going to do?" She complained. What more was there to remember? Maleficent had told her everything already.

She placed her long fingers on the glass, stirring the clouds within. "This can do a lot more than look into one's memories. How do you think I found you? This helps me to see many things."

Rose didn't touch the ball yet, thinking for a moment. "You can find anyone with it?"

"Yes, dear."

After another moment, Rose asked slowly, "Would you look for someone for me?"

Maleficent surprised her with a smile. "I suppose we could make a small exception before we begin. Touch the glass and you will find them."

Without hesitation, Rose followed the order. The clouds swirled some more, then parted to reveal a bakery, one that she recognized from Montressor. Brianne sat at a table, bouncing a toddler on one knee as another played on the floor by her feet.

Rose pulled her hands away, feeling a twinge as she did. The green clouds returned to the crystal ball. She scoffed. Maleficent seemed amused by her reaction.

"What's wrong? Your friend seems happy."

"Nothing." Rose was disgusted. Clearly Brianne hadn't bothered to find her again because she had been distracted by a man.

Maleficent said nothing more of it; she simply narrowed her eyes in a sneerful way. "Well then, let's get started. It seems that will aid us, rather than hinder us. Your friend has already left you behind. She's just one of several."

Without having to be told, Rose returned her hands to the glass, although not before rolling her eyes. Again, it felt as though the crystal ball reached into her for what it wanted.

Maleficent didn't add instructions. Rose probably wouldn't have heard them, too absorbed in her anger towards Brianne, which turned towards Reed, which turned towards Doctor Samuel and Ms. Landbaum, and finally turned towards the apprentices. Some even reached towards Rose's father for dabbling in Darkness in the first place.

The crystal ball reacted by darkening, recalling various memories that Rose had. It pulled at them; the memories seemed to be pouring out of her, leaving the feelings behind. She had no idea how long it went on.

In the end, Rose was exhausted, and Maleficent was pleased. She sent the girl off to bed, to even more obscure dreams.

* * *

They never did something quite so extensive again. Maleficent had other plans, besides using the crystal ball with Rose, and became scarce around her own tower. It wasn't a bad thing: Rose could always find her way to the dining room, and there was always a plate of food set out for her arrival. She was tasked with reading in the small library when Maleficent wasn't around. However, the books were old and vague. Rose spent more time looking out the window to distant brown mountains, drained of life. She was just glad to find a room with a window in it.

Rose made a few attempts at trying to understand the contents of the books. She couldn't help but assume that they were rare, and worth quite a bit each. She pulled many off of the shelves, read a bit of each, but found them difficult to understand. This stuff had probably came so easy to her father and his apprentices; however, it was beyond her. It would be much easier and faster if Maleficent just explained whatever she wanted Rose to know. She had a feeling the woman just wanted to distract her for the time being.

Maleficent's assigned readings were quickly abandoned as Rose gave up trying to understand them. Instead, she looked for whatever interested her. Unfortunately, Maleficent didn't own many books on star shards, nor any on space ships. There were some books on other worlds, albeit dark or dead worlds. They only held Rose's interest for so long.

When reading wasn't helping (which was most of the time), Rose looked out the window at the mountains. She finally remembered the far-off mountains that Radiant Garden had had on the opposing coast. Those had been green, and full of life. These mountains were dead.

Maleficent had told Rose to not wander the tower alone, but she did make a couple of exceptions, assuming that she could find a handful of rooms and move quick enough between them to not attract Heartless. While she took Maleficent's warning seriously, Rose was prone to boredom, curiosity, and restlessness. The library's door was always unlocked. She could handle a monster or two, if they bothered to appear. If Maleficent wanted this to be her home, then surely Rose could figure it out herself.

She wandered a lot, but always made her excursions short—in case Maleficent randomly returned (and she often did). Rose wandered the tower aimlessly just enough to know her way back to the library. Despite all of her wanderings, she never seemed to find any new areas in this expansive place.

One day, the halls seemed darker than previous days. It was always quiet, but Rose felt especially apprehensive while she was breaking the rules. She wouldn't deny that that was what she had been doing. It took some time before one of the Heartless showed up. Rose luckily was behind it, and it disappeared after a few jabs of her sword. After, she continued to roam.

There were plenty of Heartless in her path the further she went, which added to the unusualness of the day. Rose was wary, and prepared to make a run for the library if too many appeared at once. Yet they remained manageable.

Her wandering took her to the room with the crystal ball. There were more bookshelves on the walls here as well, although Maleficent did not want Rose in this room alone. The shelves at least had some oddities to diversify their stock. There were chests in the room, but the crystal ball pulled at Rose's attention.

She had never watched Maleficent closely as she had used it. She couldn't even remember much of what they did with the ball. It seemed to only require the touch and will of the user. Maleficent wasn't needed to use the orb. It couldn't be difficult, and Rose was too curious now.

Taking a seat and touching the crystal ball gingerly, she tried to find Maleficent's whereabouts. The witch would never tell her where she went, and what she was doing. The crystal ball wasn't going to help either; the clouds rumbled angrily at Rose's attempt. It had loyalties.

She gave up and attempted to recall a memory. Since last using the orb, she couldn't remember anything before waking up in Maleficent's care. Rose couldn't remember what had happened that brought her here, and why it was so important to read those books.

For a minute, it seemed as though the crystal ball wasn't going to budge for her. Perhaps it was only for Maleficent to use. Rose continued to watch closely.

Finally, there was a glimmer of something. She thought she saw a worn, brown eye giving her a sidelong glance before disappearing into the clouds. Rose focused as much as she could on that small image. Likewise, the crystal ball dug deeper into her.

A claw grabbed Rose's shoulder and pulled her back in her chair. She scrambled away, standing to face Maleficent.

"I told you to stay put while I was away." She scolded. "You should know better than touch another person's belongings."

"Why can't I remember anything?" Rose demanded.

"What makes you think I have done anything to your memory?"

Maleficent stretched her arms open to reveal that she wasn't hiding tricks. Rose had been here for days, and with no answers to anything. Maleficent wasn't going to tell her anything. She wasn't trying to help Rose at all.

Standing abruptly from the chair, Rose dashed to the curtained wall. She pulled it aside to find a massive, open window of sorts.

Rose hadn't thought much of what she was doing. She knew there was an exit behind the curtain, and it was the only way to evade Maleficent. The witch was too close to the stairs. Rose looked around the area, noticing the remnants of the far-off castle, its city, and its broken wall.

The decrepit kingdom was under siege; monsters swarmed the basin around the towers, and marched towards the city in a condensed order. It was impossible to count their numbers. If Rose were to throw herself out the window—even if she were to somehow survive that—the monsters would quickly put an end to her.

Her hair was snatched from behind. Maleficent dragged her back into the room, surprising Rose with her strength. She tried to pry the hand out of her hair as she was pulled, but Maleficent's grip was too tight. The witch finally dropped her once they were well-away from the window. Rose fell onto her shoulder, her scalp still in a lot of pain.

"You won't be escaping, my dear." Maleficent stood before her. "You certainly won't accomplish anything in that direction."

Scrambling to get up, Rose began to pull her sword from its sheath at her side. Maleficent suddenly brought her staff across her face, the orb smashing against Rose's temple. The force knocked her aside again.

"And you still have a lot to learn. I expected more from you by now."

Again, Rose got up. And again, she didn't think much. She was closer to the table—she picked up the crystal ball from its stand.

"Put that down!" Maleficent snapped, losing the upper hand. She surprisingly didn't raise her staff again. "You don't know what you're doing!"

She was right, as she had been with many things while Rose had been in her tower. Yet between the missing memories and Maleficent's absence and refusal to answer questions, Rose had finally had enough. The crystal ball continued to storm in her hands, almost pulsating with its contents. She hated the crystal ball.

As Maleficent raised her empty hand and her staff, Rose raised the ball above her head, and then threw it to the floor.

For a heavy orb, the glass easily shattered into a myriad of pieces. The clouds were finally free, and they expanded to cover everything in sight, roaring as they did. It seemed that they were all that was; the tower disappeared.

All around, images and voices were scattered among the clouds. The crystal ball had taken Rose's memories, but now they all came back too fast. Everything was too loud and incomprehensible, and they came back to her all at once. Her head began to pound.

Through the heavy mist, a hand reached out to wrap around her throat. Maleficent emerged. "You stupid girl!"

Grabbing her wrist with both of her hands, Rose tried to pull Maleficent off of herself while blinded and deafened by memories that were still returning. The witch only tightened her grip.

A final image followed the flood of memories, that of a darkened kingdom. The sea had long drained from the basin, the bridge long-since crumbled, cutting the island off from the mainland. The people were malnourished and miserable, and monsters roamed freely. Thick grey clouds blocked any light from shining on the kingdom. Rose watched from a tower in the castle, but yet it wasn't her: it was also Maleficent standing in that same spot.

* * *

Rose suddenly found herself standing in a large, quiet field, trees defining two of the borders, and small fences lining the other two. In the distance were green mountains, much like the ones she suddenly remembered from home. The sun sat low above one treeline.

A sudden movement brought Rose's attention to the trees. Whatever it was, she chased after it.

It wasn't a very long chase; once she was into the woods, the figure—a woman—turned to face Rose. The sunlight that broke through the leaves made her chestnut hair gleam. She gave a small smile that would seem playful if Rose didn't know it any better.

"Mom." She broke into a grin, ecstatic that she could remember her so clearly.

"You've grown up." The woman continued to smile, but became more serious. "You can't stay here for long."

"Why not? I just found you." Rose thought that her mother would be happier to see her after all of these years.

"Because you still have a life to live." Rose's mother spoke strictly. It was how Rose had seen her frequently in her youth, but not towards her.

"It's not much of a life." Rose grumbled childishly. "Maleficent wants to take even that away. Why can't I stay with you?"

"You're not dead."

She looked at her mother for a moment, then at their surroundings. Her mother continued to smile, although now it was sad.

"Where's Dad?" Rose suddenly realized that he was missing, whatever he looked like.

Her mother frowned. "He's not here."

Another moment passed as Rose thought it over. Her mother approached, then hugged her tightly.

"There were so many things I wanted to show and give to you. But my time ended long ago. Go home." She rested her chin atop Rose's head. "Just go home."

Rose nodded, although she wanted to stay there. Wherever there was. It was away from Maleficent, at least.

"And don't come back." Her mother shoved her away, and everything disappeared.


	5. Chapter 5

Feeling a hand on her shoulder, Rose suddenly woke and pushed it away. She first became aware of the wounded expression of a young woman's face. Surveying their surroundings, Rose realized that she wasn't in Maleficent's tower.

The woman—it was hard to tell if she was a woman or still a girl—backed away as Rose helped herself up against the brick wall she had been sleeping against. It was night, but there were plenty of streetlamps around to light the town. Much of it seemed to be made of brown bricks. It was quiet.

"Are you okay? Are you from another world?" The woman asked as Rose was still regaining her bearings. It was a frank question; even when she had begun visiting other worlds, it wasn't something someone asked until well into the conversation.

"Yeah." Rose wondered how she had gotten here—assuming that it was different from Maleficent's world.

"It must have fallen. C'mon. We can put you up." The woman led the way from the alley and into a square.

She led Rose to a restaurant. There were few patrons, whom all kept to themselves. Rose was thankful when she was given a plate of food. She had no idea how long she had been unconscious in the alleyway, or how she even came to it in the first place. She couldn't provide the name of the world, either.

There was a hotel that Rose could stay at without charge, and she stayed for a couple of days. She often spent time trying to make sense of the jumble of people and places that sometimes came across her mind. She also frequently checked the job and itinerary boards. This world had a port for gummi ships. There were many flights offering passage to people's homes, or any available world. Rose didn't have any munny to pay for passage. She needed a job.

A man approached from behind while she had been looking over the job board on the third day. His dark hair looked as though it hadn't been taken care of in days, and he smelt of alcohol. Rose watched as he pinned a paper to the board, blocking a few other ads at the same time.

He turned to look at her, taking a moment before he became more aware. "You're a sight for sore eyes! What happened to your face?"

"At least I'm not ugly like you." Rose assumed he was referring to the cut near her forehead. As with the small mark on her cheek, she had no idea where the cut had come from.

"I guess you're still mad. I can't blame you. You wouldn't believe the month I've had." The man rubbed his face, which was beginning to sag, either with stress or age. Rose knew him, but couldn't quite remember how. What was there to be mad about?

"Well anyway," He shrugged. "There's a opening, if you want it. Board and meals are free. The pay is good. But the captain is kind of an asshole."

She might not remember much of what he was talking about, but Rose had a feeling she could agree with that sentiment. "Sounds fair. What happened?"

"Trish left for some reason. She wouldn't say, and it wasn't my business to ask. Cliff ran off to elope with some woman he just met." The captain snorted, then became somber. "And Wanda had a bit of an accident. Hit her head real hard. It knocked her all out of sorts, so I took her home."

Rose remembered that name and face. She had been one of the few people that wanted her around. "Can we go see her?" She felt so childish by asking the question.

The captain shrugged again. "We should. She gave me hell for letting you go like that. Maybe you can bring her back again."

Without much more discussion, he led her out to the docks, where the ship was waiting. It was a familiar sight to Rose, and she had to smile. They weren't going to her home—that Garden place—but it was a start in the right direction.

* * *

Rose had a room to return to on the ship, and her memories of it became more clear as she worked alongside the two men. She was very much needed; Brutus often needed another person in the engine room with him, Reed wanted someone to pilot the ship for him (even if Rose wasn't exactly qualified yet; he had decided it was easier to train her than find someone else), and considering Reed and Brutus's habits, she had no problem in taking over the cooking.

It was a few days before they came to Wanda's home. It was as expected: the port was rather empty, and the town quiet. Her home was outside of town, in a large estate. The crew wasn't allowed in, and pointed in the direction to the cemetery.

Her grave was the only newly-dug one, which made it easy to find. They all stood quietly around. None of them had much to say about it. Or anything, for that matter.

They stayed for at least an hour, then returned to the ship. They never visited again.

* * *

With only two crew members remaining, Reed had to choose smaller jobs. It didn't change much, as there were less people to pay now. Even after the work was done, he wasn't having any luck in hiring new people. Sometimes he had to be creative, and create jobs himself.

That was his plan as the ship landed in a vast canyon, the world considered a wasteland. Wastelands could be full of useful things, and this one was filled with old armor and swords. Even better: there was no rust, only dirt. They were well worth their value in scrap metal.

Gathering enough empty crates and bags, captain and crew set out to gather as much as they could. The swords were bulky, odd-shaped, and stuck in the ground; they quickly learned to leave those and focus on the pieces of armor instead. It wasn't hard to gather the complete set: it was as though the people had completely disappeared on the spot, leaving their armor behind. No one had the misfortune of finding a decaying body.

Everyone made several trips to deposit suits of armor in the ship. Much of the day passed like this. Rose had to wonder what had happened on this world, and ponder whether they should just sell the stuff as scrap. There had to be a better-paying option.

Late in the afternoon, a wind storm came through, picking up dust in its harsh gale. The sun was muted, and the ship invisible. Rose put her head down and searched the area for shelter. She couldn't tell whether she was approaching the ship or moving further away. She found a crevice underneath a butte, the wind blowing against the other side of the land form. Rose tried to move quickly, the bag of armor hitting her back with each stride.

The crevice was shaped as a concave in the base of the butte, as if something had blown into its side. Rose was just glad to have shelter from the storm, although there wasn't any armor to grab here. So she simply watched the storm, waiting for a break so she could find the ship.

It was difficult to hear anything over the wind. She suddenly noticed movement on her left, and jerked away when she saw a towering suit of armor a couple of meters away, armed with a large sword. It even had a brown cape, and gold gilding around its chest and joints. Despite the terrain, the armor was spotless.

Reed had said this place was completely deserted, but it looked like one person still remained here.

Rose's sword wasn't going to do anything against him, and his own was much larger. She assumed he was hostile, at least. Tightening her grip on the bag, she ran out into the storm. If it blinded her, then it would certainly blind the armored man.

Blinded and deafened by the storm, Rose couldn't tell if she was being followed. She called out for the two men occasionally, though she had to cover her face from flying dirt. After awhile, she thought she heard Brutus calling for her in return.

Just as suddenly as it had come on, the storm dissipated. Rose could see the large man in the distance, and the ship even further off. She began running, the armor in the bag clanking as she did.

"How'd you get so far out?" Brutus asked once she was close enough. Now that there were less people on the ship, he had gotten friendlier.

She looked back, but the armored man was no where to be seen. "I was followed."

"By who? We're the only people on this rock." He gestured to the land of discarded armor.

"A suit of armor. Someone's still here."

Rose was surprised when Brutus guffawed, then she became frustrated. He shook his head and led the way back to the ship, where Reed was waiting.

"Rose's seen a ghost!" Brutus claimed once they reached the hull. Reed joined his laughter. She glared at them both.

"I did not!"

"Did the storm get to you that much?" Reed smirked. Rose looked over herself to see that she was coated in a thick layer of dust. Her white shirt was now a burnt orange. "Anyway, the hull's almost full. Go clean up, before you make a mess in my ship."

* * *

Once the ship was back in space, and supper came and went, Rose and Reed were alone on the bridge. Since she had returned, Reed had been teaching her how to fly the large ship. He still had to keep an eye on her, but Rose thought she was learning quickly, just as she had done with the shuttle. This arrangement also allowed Reed to drink more often.

"Do you have a buyer lined up already?" Rose asked, looking out at the stars.

He finished a swig from his flask. "No, but I know a guy that'll take it all in a heartbeat."

She glanced at a couple of monitors. "What if we go higher? This stuff is worth more than scrap."

"Like what?"

"Museums. They'll pay a lot more than scrap value." Rose shrugged, as if the thought had just crossed her mind.

Reed snorted. "Those high-class folks don't have anything to do with us. We're bottom dwellers. Did you forget that while you were away?"

"Then don't show your ugly face. Show them the goods first."

"And how would we do that?"

"We've been to plenty of advanced worlds. We could go there, look up their museums, and send pictures with price offers."

"Worlds?" Reed put emphasis on the final 's', his tone dubious.

Rose continued on, having spent the evening thinking it over. "If we spread out the collection, we'll have more contacts that will want to deal with us later on. They'll pay more than scrappers or other smugglers."

Shaking his head, Reed took another swig from his flask.

"You haven't found many jobs, and they hardly paid for our expenses. I don't have to look at the math to know that. This would pay for itself twice over, and more." The idea seemed plausible enough; Rose hadn't expected Reed to disagree so much. Usually he was compliant when he was drinking.

He rubbed his face. "We don't have the manpower like we used to. There'll be money soon enough, once we get to the scrapper."

"Curators would pay more." Rose pointed out again. It wasn't unusual to do when Reed was drinking.

"Who died and made you captain?" Reed snapped. "I get desperate enough to hire you back and you're gonna make the orders now? No. We're gonna keep doing what we've always done—at least what we can do with who we have left."

Rose waited as he took an angry swig from his flask. She waited another moment to see if he had anything else to get off of his mind. When that didn't come, she knew she could continue without being interrupted.

"We can do this with three people, and even less. It's not that difficult. We'll find some museums, make contact, and show them our offer. It's almost the reverse of what we've been doing." Rose insisted.

Reed shook his head again. "You sure did learn a lot from us. I'm starting to think you have a knack for this business."

She had never planned something so elaborate before, and was surprised that it had come so quick to her. Rose hadn't thought that she had picked up on the smuggling business. Yet she had listened to many discussions and transactions between the crew and contacts. Reed would know more than anyone. Still, it wasn't anything to be proud of.

"Just one exception," He held up a finger. "You make the sale."

"You're the one who can talk." Rose frowned. She herself wasn't much to look at, and too young to be taken seriously. "It wouldn't kill you to sober up once in awhile."

"When have you known me to be sober? I only hired you the first time because I was drunk."

"You're only agreeing to this because you're drunk." Rose added, to which Reed grinned and nodded.

With that settled, Rose had nothing more to insist upon. She wondered if she should have in the first place. Reed was right: they would earn plenty from the scrap value of the armor. Rose was also right in that they would earn much more if they took the goods to museums. But when had she ever been to a museum? They were high-cultured places, and she was the opposite of that. Rose knew nothing about these suits of armor, but knew they had to be attractive in higher circles. She wasn't sure she would be able to make the sales. The whole deal didn't seem like her at all. Something felt uncomfortable about it.

"What happened to you after I left you on that world?" Reed broke the silence, fixing Rose with a glassy gaze. He suddenly seemed less drunk. "I left you, and conveniently find you over a month later in Traverse Town, with nothing but the clothes on your back and a gash on your head. You can't say nothing happened."

"Nothing happened." Rose stared out at the stars, pointedly ignoring his gaze.

"I get it." Reed settled back into his chair. "It was a boy, wasn't it? Promised you he could take you away, anywhere you'd like in his little bug. But he was rough, and eventually got fed up and left you stranded in Traverse Town."

Rose scoffed loudly, disgusted by his assumption. Reed couldn't have guessed further off.

"A girl, then? I had a feeling you are partial to them."

"Shut up." Rose scowled. "It's not like you've told me why Trish and Cliff really left."

They sat in silence then, until Reed ran out of alcohol and decided to go to bed.

* * *

There was a lot to set up in order to make the first sale. Aside from contacting a museum, photos had to be taken of the armor and sent via the world's computer network, the asking price attached. Rose knew that asking too much would discourage the buyer, and asking too little would make them suspect something. However, as it was their first contact with the institution, the price had to be a little low. To her surprise, the curator responded with avid interest—more than Rose was prepared for.

She also had to look the part. With an appointment set at the museum, Rose, Reed, and Brutus spent the remaining time shopping for high-end clothes. If they didn't dress up, the curator would insist on paying a lower price because they were "bottom dwellers", as Reed had said. Rose chose to wear a black suit, knowing that would be much more intimidating than a dress. She hated dresses. Her youth would be used against her.

Three suits of armor were being offered to the museum. Reed resolved to move them in three separate bags, putting stuffing in them as well to make it look good. The museum staff would have to clean the armor off themselves. It made it all the easier to move them across town for the appointment.

Getting into the museum's back entrance was a lot easier than the three had expected, and they took that to mean that they had cleaned up very well. They were taken to a room in the basement. It was well-lit, but cluttered with many other artifacts that weren't ready for public display. There were three convenient tables for the suits of armor to be laid upon.

Surprisingly, the curator barely noticed them once he saw the armor. He made small comments as he looked over each closely. The metal was different: they weren't designed like other suits of armor he had seen before. He also noted the lack of rust, and was thankful that the three hadn't attempted to clean the artifacts themselves. Rose offered the coordinates to the world when asked, but didn't say anything about the armored man that still lived there. Reed and Brutus were also kind enough not to bring it up.

Without more questions, the curator found the suits of armor to be acceptable, and amicably paid the asking prices for them. Then he sent the crew out. Reed warmed up to Rose's idea. It went better than they had expected, and there were more museums to visit yet.

* * *

As Rose had expected, dealing with high-class curators brought them more jobs that paid more than their usual. Reed had to admit that she had started a good thing. Thankfully, they never had to put on a show again. In fact, the more relaxed the crew was, the more sketchy the jobs became, and they were paid appropriately.

It went on for awhile, though the jobs were no less dangerous than before. There were less people, but more monsters to fight. They were the same no matter what world they happened to be in. The crew was also compensated, if they mentioned how difficult the monsters were on a particular job.

Having been on the ship for months, Rose assumed she could remember most of what had happened beforehand, when she was first hired. She also remembered growing up in the orphanage on Montressor. Her goal was to go home. She still had strange dreams, though. She knew much of her memory was still scattered. She remembered enough to know what role she had on the ship; it kept Reed off of her case, but she knew that he was watching for something. Perhaps he didn't believe his own story.

Whatever it was, they still had to work. The crew was sent to an old cavern that used to serve as a thieves' den. It was a fitting job for their ilk. Like a good thieves' den, it was a maze. Over time, they split off into the different paths to cover more ground.

Monsters were also scattered about the cavern, causing everyone to move slowly. Just when Rose thought she had found a safe spot at a dead end, she was jumped by a large monster. Her flashlight was smashed in the process. However, the monster disappeared before Rose could stand and take a stab at it.

"Do you insist on being a petty thief?"

She scrambled to her feet, whipping around to find that Maleficent had appeared. The orb of her staff glowed in the dark. The witch smiled at Rose's haphazard appearance.

"Haven't found your way home yet? You're very close, you know." She gloated. She waved her arm across herself as Rose charged, knocking the girl back with an invisible force. "Though maybe you can learn something from such a dark place."

The glow of the orb disappeared, making it impossible to see. Rose ran in the direction of Maleficent, but collided with a wall, rather than a person.

There was movement in the opposite direction. Rose assumed that Maleficent brought back the monster from before, as a parting gift. She could almost see its hulking figure approaching in the dark. She lunged and swung her sword, cutting across its skin.

Rose expected a counterattack. Instead, the form gasped, then gurgled. It sounded oddly human. It fell to the side with a human-like thump. She sheathed her sword and bent down at its side, feeling around for the wound. His thick neck was wet and hot. It was Brutus.

"Reed!" Rose screeched, putting her hands over the slice across the large man's neck. All he could do was gasp for air. He didn't try to move. A couple of moments later, he stopped struggling completely.

Several minutes passed before a light began to approach. Rose had kept calling for Reed as loud as she could, and he appeared, pallid and shaking. He pried her hands off of Brutus's neck and checked him himself. Rose sat back, not sure what to do with her bloody hands. She tried to explain, but she couldn't properly say words.

Reed spent a couple of minutes looking at the body, before he grabbed Rose by the shoulders and shook her to shut her up. Whether it was the shaking or his furious eyes that did the trick, neither knew.

"Get it together! I can only drag one body out of here. If you can't pull yourself up, I'm leaving you here." Reed scolded.

Rose remained still. He shook his head and pulled on Brutus's arm. He managed to pull the larger body up, but could hardly step forward under the weight. She stood and put the other arm over her shoulders as well.

Their trek was long and silent. Neither of them had anything to say. Brutus's head had fallen forward, and the neck continued to bleed onto the front of his shirt. They had already defeated the monsters that would have been in their path when they had entered the cavern.

The moon and stars offered a lot of light, despite the nighttime hour. The ship wasn't far from the cavern, but it hardly improved their mood. Once they reached it, Rose let go of Brutus just long enough to open the hull door.

They set him into his room. Before Rose could think, Reed grabbed her by the arm and pulled her all the way to her room. He shoved her in and locked the door.

* * *

Rose felt the ship leave the world. She continued sit in her room, watching stars go by outside of her window. The blood remaining on her hands had dried and faded into her skin. The stains on her shirt would never come out, though.

She didn't know what Reed had planned. At some point, Rose must have fallen asleep because the view outside of her window was suddenly a blue sky and trees. She knew she was still locked in her room, not even bothering to get up and check. So she waited a few hours more, never feeling hungry. The ship left as dusk was nearly over.

When Reed did open the door, there weren't officers with him. He tossed in an apple and locked the door again. He couldn't look at Rose.

She couldn't stand being in her own skin. At times, Rose was convinced it was a nightmare that she hadn't woken up from yet. She couldn't feel anything. How could she go home like this?

While Rose sat listening to her thoughts, Reed started drinking again. He eventually entered her room once more, his third or fourth bottle of rum in his hand. He stared for a long moment, looking more ragged than usual.

"I had a whole crew before you came along." Reed slurred. "And a happy one, too. He had kids!"

Rose looked down into her lap. Brutus had always bragged about his kids. Whereas she was supposed to find her father at home, she had just taken a father away from his children.

"I shouldn't have brought you back. Now what am I supposed to do with you?" Reed shook his head slowly. Normally, he could keep his composure while drunk. He had drank more than usual.

She shrugged, mulling it over. "I could take one of the shuttles and just leave."

Reed's free hand came across her face in a flash, knocking her aside. Rose heard more shuffling, followed by a click. She looked up to a gun barrel in her face, Reed not far behind.

"I should just end you myself!" He spat.

"You're drunk. You'll miss." She was quieter, cowering away from him as best she could. She began to feel more sorry for him than herself.

With a frustrated yell, the butt of the pistol was brought down on her face. A shot fired in the impact. The bullet hit a wall, then bounced around the room before resting. Reed and Rose both had to duck.

While the captain took time to recover, she dashed for the door and escaped, grabbing her new bag along the way. Reed roared after her.

She knew the quickest path to take to the shuttle, although she wasn't thinking at all. She continued to run, trying to hurry when she heard a bullet hit something behind her. One burrowed its way into her bag, saving her back. The bag was hardly a hindrance compared to being drunk. Reed was much slower.

By the time Rose reached the shuttle, he was far behind. Still, she quickly secured the hatch and entered the ignition sequence. She had the locks disengaged and separated the shuttle from the ship soon after. After flying forward for a little bit, Rose activated the star shard and warped far from the ship.

With space between them, she began to slow down and think. Perhaps going home was the right thing to do. She could lay low, try to forget, and hope to be forgotten. It was certainly better than Reed's approach.

However, Rose wasn't sure where home was.

* * *

For awhile, Rose flew around, unsure of what to do. She flew past many worlds, and observed a nebula, where new worlds were being born. It made her think that perhaps her home's fall to darkness was just the way it was meant to end. If worlds were born, then they had to die—just like people did.

Flying cost fuel and oxygen, which Rose considered letting the two run out and letting things happen as they may. It would only be fair to Brutus and his family. She went over the scene many times, thinking that she should have reacted differently. She should have said something. And yet, Brutus had also been mute in the situation. He had also lacked a flashlight. He hadn't acted normal either.

Despite her thoughts, it suddenly dawned on Rose that she was starving. She couldn't recall the last time she had eaten, or had a drink. She finally landed in an uninteresting world. It had plenty to sell, and once Rose had eaten, she bought supplies for the shuttle on a whim: an ice box with which to store food and water, a mattress and some blankets, and a solar panel to give the shuttle extra power. She even bought a few maps of the stars.

With everything assembled in the shuttle, Rose could easily live in it, stopping occasionally for food and fuel. The new improvements took most of the money she had saved up.

By the time she was ready to leave, the star shard had charged. She readily used it. One more warp meant that she was all the more further away from Reed.


	6. Chapter 6

A few more days passed as Rose flew, when suddenly on a whim, she changed course. She didn't know what she would find, but her actions weren't her own as she continued on. It was just as well. Maybe letting go like this would be more productive.

* * *

She came across Maleficent's world. Rose recognized the decrepit castle and its city as the one she had seen from Maleficent's tower. True enough, she saw the tower far off in the distance. Though she knew the witch wasn't dead after all, she wanted to push her luck; she was curious if the castle and attending city was truly abandoned. The marching monsters had proven otherwise.

It looked different than she remembered, but Rose thought that was because she hadn't been so close to it before. She landed the shuttle just outside of the city's walls. The gate was gone, so she only had to make a steep climb into the streets. Construction was everywhere, but it lessened as she approached the center, where there were more people.

The people didn't pay much attention to Rose, as they were all working. Considering the size of the city, she expected there to be more residents. Though there was evidence of construction around the castle, most people were working towards the city's walls.

This was home. It suddenly dawned on Rose. Some things were familiar, such as the cobblestone everywhere and the many gardens. Many things had been changed. She began to recall how certain streets and features should have been placed. None of the fountains were running, and some were nonexistent. Some houses seemed to have been moved. It may have been many years, but Rose knew buildings were out of place, and streets had been shifted somewhere else. Why weren't the people putting things right?

She didn't ask anyone because she didn't want them to notice her. It was nice that no one was asking questions, even if she had just landed a space ship in broad daylight. They didn't seem to mind it. It was probably how they had returned, too.

All that time that Maleficent had held Rose in the tower, she had been closer to home than ever before. And yet she had never tried to make a run for the city. All she had cared about was finding a gummi ship and leaving.

Approaching the castle, Rose suddenly did not want to enter it. It almost looked the same as it had all those years ago (she wasn't sure how many it really was), except massive parts were missing. There were some cranes and scaffolding framing the castle. Clearly someone was repairing it.

As the main stairs to the castle were badly damaged, Rose wandered aimlessly for awhile. She was glad to put off visiting the castle, a weight lifting off her shoulders, until one such path led to a back entrance. It seemed to be the only entrance at this point. It made her curious as to what work was being done inside.

It was dark and cluttered with debris, but there weren't any monsters. Rose had expected everything to be fixed by now, since the castle was in the center of town. The entrance had been familiar, but she didn't remember much else about the castle. It was too damaged beyond much recognition, and some areas were changed in the castle as well. It was nothing like she remembered. Rose was lost.

She came across a control room of sorts. The main attractions was the weird, colorful circle on the wall, and a large computer console opposite of that. Beyond the computer was a window to a seemingly-endless room with many tubes on the wall. None of it made sense to Rose, and she had the sense to move on quickly.

After following another hallway for awhile, she came upon a room that was finally familiar to her: her father's study.

It was just as messy as many other parts of the castle. Books and papers were everywhere on the floor, and the bookshelves were just about empty. The large tanks had also been broken, scattering glass amongst the papers. There was faded writing—all gibberish to Rose—on a spot on the wall, and a large portrait of an unknown apprentice leaning on a bookshelf nearby. She didn't remember such a portrait before.

Rose also didn't remember the large hallway she had entered from, but she did remember entering through the narrow door many times. This was a room that she wasn't supposed to enter, because her father had always been busy with work. Rose had always ignored that rule, but if her father had ever been annoyed, he never showed it (or she just never realized that she was pestering him). Sometimes, he had even seemed relieved for such an interruption.

No one was here at the moment. Rose found herself searching through the drawers of the desk. She wasn't sure why, but she was curious. The contents looked like they had been dug through just as the bookshelves had been; they were sparse and not important: a couple of Popsicle sticks (most likely from the many top secret excursions to get ice cream, which her mother was never supposed to find out about), a variety of pens, and some wax and seals. There was one photograph shoved in the very back of the top drawer that Rose pulled out for a closer look.

There were five men standing in the photograph, one being the apprentice from the painted portrait across the room. One of them held up a boy dressed in the same fashion they were. Seated at the desk in front of them all had to be her father.

None of them were familiar to Rose, though she tried to think of names. It only made sense that it was her father and his six apprentices, considering where she found the photograph. It struck her that she hadn't seen a single one of her mother or herself.

It then dawned on Rose that her father could be here in the castle. Where else could he be, if not dead with her mother? Maleficent had to be wrong—he had somehow outsmarted his apprentices.

The door suddenly opened. Rose was startled, dropping the photograph. Yet it was only the youngest apprentice, all grown up. He looked surprised to see anyone in the study. She recovered fast, becoming furious. What were the apprentices still doing in the castle? They were supposed to be dead.

If Rose could kill someone innocent on accident, then she shouldn't have a problem with killing a traitor. Pulling her sword out, she stepped onto the desk and launched herself at the boy without much thought. He managed to stop gaping and move out of the way. She landed in time to see a large guard just outside of the door. Before even he could react, Rose dashed for the secret hallway. She could hear the guard stomping behind her.

Thankfully, her smaller size made her faster. The guard was calling for her to stop, but she didn't have to listen to him. Rose could almost remember his name.

She ran out of the castle and well into the town. People took more notice now that she was running, especially with sword in hand. Eventually a man with an even larger sword blocked her path. Rose managed to stop in time. The guard seemed to have given up the chase awhile ago.

"Who are you?" The man with the ridiculous sword demanded, pointing his sword towards her. It had the bullet chamber of a revolver towards the hilt. It looked stupid to Rose.

"What's it to you?" She shot back, pointing her much-less-intimidating sword at him.

The man snorted. "You shouldn't run with your weapon out."

Rose noticed the scar on his face. "You would know about that, wouldn't you?"

An older, shorter man came from behind the armed one, pushing him aside to look at Rose. He wore a conical blue hat, but it didn't fool anyone into thinking he was taller.

"Excuse him, my dear. He has no tact when it comes to ladies." The old man smiled. "What is your name?"

The old man didn't seem much of a threat. She lowered her sword. "Rose."

Her name excited the old man, who clapped his hands. "Of course! My, how you've grown in these past years! You look much like your father."

Rose had seen the photograph, and felt that she looked nothing like her father. Why did this old man know him, anyway? Yet he continued talking before she could say anything.

"Come, come! Let us have some tea at my house. I apologize beforehand for the messy state it's in. It's also the Restoration Committee's headquarters, you see." The man prattled on, ushering the younger to go on. He had lowered his sword and began walking ahead of them. Rose put her sword away, feeling that neither were going to harm her. The old man offered an arm to her, a gesture she did not understand. He let it fall to his side again when she didn't take it.

"I'm sure it comes as a shock that the kingdom is in such a disarray, but it used to look a lot worse! Everyone has been pitching in to help rebuild it to what it was." The old man explained as they approached his house. It had to be the same one the young man went into. Rose hoped he would go away.

Once inside, the old man drew a crooked stick from his blue robes and flicked his wrist. Immediately, the round table set in the middle of the house was cleared off, as well as the stairs on the side of the platform the table stood on. New dishes floated into place as the tablecloth straightened itself. The chairs pulled themselves out to be sat in.

The old man chuckled at the display, and looked at Rose for signs of amusement. She only eyed him skeptically. Maleficent had also used magic so openly, although this man's magic seemed different in a way.

Rose followed him to the table anyway, taking the seat that he gestured to. A warm teapot appeared, steam coming from its spout. It poured itself into the two teacups on the table. The spoon from the sugar bowl came to hover over Rose's cup, but moved to the man's once she shook her head. He was amused by her now.

"I remember a time when you were fascinated by my magic. You'd always ask to see some fireworks, or beg to be taught magic, but you were much too young then."

"It's not for me." It was the most polite thing she could think of saying about it.

The mirth left the man temporarily as he stroked his beard. "You don't seem to remember me."

"I don't." Rose admitted. Considering that she couldn't remember her parents very well, this man was the least of her concern.

"Forgive me for not reintroducing myself!" The man hopped up from his seat to formally bow to her. Surprisingly, his hat did not fall off. "My name is Merlin. Your father would refer to me on any questions about magic, although I don't think he ever did so enough. The young man you met earlier is Leon. I'm afraid he won't give you half the honor you deserve."

Taking his seat again, the wizard stirred his tea. Rose had yet to touch hers. Right about now, she would prefer Leon's treatment.

"Where have you been all of these years? We had all thought you died with your mother." Merlin was happy that that was not the case. Rose was conflicted.

"Other worlds." She shrugged. Why should she tell him everything?

He nodded, seeming to understand that he was not going to get anything out of her easily. "Well, I'm glad we were all proven wrong!"

"Where's my father?" Rose asked, being less polite than she should be towards hospitality. "And why are the apprentices still alive?"

Her sudden questions surprised Merlin. She didn't want to listen to any more babbling from him. She wanted him to talk about more important things.

Taking a moment to answer, Merlin wrung his hands. "Well, your father passed—although not when we thought he had! It was the heroes Sora and Riku who saw him last. Leon knows the story better than I do. Leon!"

He had gone down a hallway. Rose was neither happy nor annoyed to see him again. Merlin sat back, relieved that he wouldn't have to tell the story.

"What did Mickey tell you about Ansem the Wise?" Merlin then turned to Rose. "Do you remember Mickey? He was a friend of your father's. Odd little fellow—I'll tell you afterward."

Rose wasn't interested in learning who Mickey was, and was glad Merlin shut up to let Leon talk.

"Just that he died when destroying the Organization's Kingdom Hearts. His own machine killed him, I guess." Leon shrugged, arms crossed. He didn't know why it was important at the moment.

"What organization? And what's a Kingdom Heart?" Rose turned to him.

"Organization XIII was started when Ansem's apprentices lost their own hearts and became Nobodies. Sora and Riku defeated them almost two years ago. Only those in the castle came back recompleted." Leon explained in the same monotone voice that showed he could care less.

"Why haven't you done anything about them, then?" Rose was becoming cross again. Leon had so readily accused her of being up to no good.

"Because they don't have a clear recollection of their betrayal. Ienzo was a child at the time. They claim they were under the influence of Xehanort, and he is one of the three who haven't come back yet." Leon frowned. "Their story checks out, as far as I'm concerned. They already got whatever they deserved."

"They tried to destroy this world!" Rose snapped. "They're the reason that this place has to be rebuilt!"

"Xehanort had control over them. He was the one who started it. It was Maleficent and her Heartless that caused most of this destruction."

She took a moment to process everything. Maleficent had told her differently, but of course the witch would do that. Rose hadn't known all along that while she was in that tower, she was home. Leon was probably right, but she didn't want to think the apprentices were innocent. It was convenient to blame someone else.

This wasn't at all what Rose had expected. She expected her home to be fine, and her father alive. None of that was true. Instead, those guilty got to take up residence in this world, without conflict.

Merlin broke the silence, speaking gently. "I'm terribly sorry, my lady."

"What about Maleficent?" She brought up.

"We think she's moved on to other worlds, but she left that eyesore behind." Leon stated. Once he answered her, he made a quick exit.

By now, Rose's tea had gone cold. Merlin looked at her with pity, and she hated that.

"Why don't you stay here for awhile? I have the extra room, and you could use the rest. It's a lot to take in, and the journey hasn't been kind to you." He offered.

There wasn't anywhere else Rose could go, but at the same time, there wasn't a reason to stay. It would be nice to stay on land for awhile longer, though, so she took the offer.

* * *

Rose didn't rest much. Instead, she mulled over everything she had been told. Maleficent was untrustworthy, but yet she claimed the apprentices were at fault for what had happened. Rose couldn't understand how the whole town absolved them of blame.

She had expected everything to be fine in the kingdom, exactly as she remembered it. She expected her father to be alive, and perhaps that he had been searching all of the worlds for her as well. Granted, her traveling would have made that difficult.

How long had it been since Rose had had that vision of her mother? Then again, why did she believe in a vision to begin with? Regardless, she should have tried searching harder. She had gotten distracted by smuggling. She probably would have been alright if she never joined Reed's crew again.

By the time dinner was called, Rose had resolved to stay awhile longer. While it had been debatable for most of her life whether her parents were alive or not, she had spent a long time searching for the world. She could at least give it a chance. There was plenty of work, and a shortage of workers.

There were more people at dinner than Rose had expected. While she did not appreciate Merlin's notion to treat her like a princess, she had been pleased earlier to hear the wizard chastising Leon to mind his manners. He wasn't as annoying compared to the short girl, who did the most oogling out of everyone present. They all seemed put out when Rose gave vague answers to their many questions, and even more so disappointed when she got into a conversation with the other old man about gummi ships. At least he was someone she could easily talk to, as long as it was about ships.

Once dinner was cleared away, the old man—Cid—went out for a smoke. The tiny girl with the big ego, who was never going to let Rose forget her name was Yuffie, insisted on making a membership card for her. It didn't seem contract-binding, so Rose signed her name on the piece of plastic. She was thankful when the taller brunette decided to pull her away for a walk.

It was much quieter outside of Merlin's house. The other girl had introduced herself as Aerith; just like everything else about her, even her name was pretty. Rose especially made an effort to make pleasant conversation with her.

"Nice night, isn't it?" She felt ashamed of herself.

"It is. Even the Heartless are quiet for the moment." Aerith nodded as they walked towards the square.

"Why are they called Heartless?"

"They're the hearts of people who have fallen to Darkness. They eat the hearts of others, too, making even more Heartless." Aerith explained, and went further when Rose looked lost. "They're dark creatures that attack humans."

Rose shrugged. "We just called them monsters and killed them."

"We do our best here, but only a Keyblade can truly defeat them. Else they just pop up somewhere else."

"What's a Keyblade?" All of these people talked about things that Rose had never heard before.

Aerith giggled. "Well, it's a weapon that very few can wield. Sora and Riku both have one, but they're currently in other worlds."

"That's not very useful, then." Rose pointed out. "You guys talk about this Sora and Riku a lot."

"They're the reason we could come back to this world. They saved it from Darkness."

Darkness was another thing that she didn't understand well, even if Maleficent had tried to "teach" her about it. No one made sense here.

Aerith approached a flowerbed and knelt down to look over the blossoms. They stood tall in the dark dirt, but it would be a long time before the gardens were fully restored. Rose didn't think she would be around to see that.

She remained standing, looking around. It seemed that reconstruction was complete in this area. There was plenty of light provided by streetlamps, but only enough to emphasize the evening time. They were close to the castle, but it appeared as a large, dark form against the late dusk sky. There didn't seem to be any life inside.

There were other flowerbeds in the square, and Aerith checked all of them. It was an odd hour to garden, but Rose wasn't going to stop her. She was much quieter than Yuffie, which was another thing Rose was thankful for.

"It's not much, but it's home." Aerith randomly spoke up as she stood from the last flowerbed.

"It's not what I remember." Rose shrugged. "I think that after you've been gone so long, it stops being home."

Aerith's locks swayed slightly as she shook her head with a smile. "Any place can become home if you put a little bit of effort into it. Even if it isn't the first time."

Rose found herself turning red. "Y-yeah. I guess so."

She wasn't sure if she agreed with Aerith. The other girl was completely oblivious to her reaction. She led the way from the square. Rose continued to follow along.

Many buildings had been restored, but only a handful were residential. There were plenty that were still empty. Aerith and Rose entered one such seemingly-empty house. When the lights were turned on, however, dozens of flower pots and trays were shown to be scattered about the place, their contents at various developments of growth.

The first floor was divided into two rooms, the front room being larger. Aerith looked over the plants in each one. Some she watered, and some she left alone. Rose guessed the place was going to be a store, judging by the counter in the front room.

"Are these all for the city's flower beds?" She didn't think they looked like much yet.

"Yes." Aerith answered lightly, as if she was only half-aware that she had company. "Let me show you the basement."

Through a door in the backroom, they descended stairs to a well-lit room. There were still some growing trays and flower pots down there as well, but also large pots with small saplings. She watered some of these, too.

"So you have all of the plants for the town crammed into one shop?" It didn't seem like much, when said like that.

"Well, no. Some have already been planted in beds." Aerith giggled, amused by the thought. "Some of these are for outside of the city, too. We shouldn't ignore them. No one has been out there to see the damage done."

"I have a ship." Rose suddenly volunteered. She remembered always wanting to go outside of the city's walls. "Just a small one, but I could always go check it out."

Aerith smiled at her enthusiasm. "We should talk to the others about it tomorrow. But since everything looks fine here, let's go back to Merlin's."

The walk back was rather quiet. Rose looked around some more. Though she knew a lot of things were not correctly placed, she also contemplated the accuracy of her memory. How would she remember the plan of the town from over ten years ago? A five-year-old couldn't possibly memorize it. Still, changes were evident, and she didn't like them.

Rose wasn't ready to deal with the others or even go to bed. She opted to keep walking around, although it would be hard to familiarize herself again with the town in the dark. She ventured as far as her ship, parked outside of the wall. It was locked up tight; it wouldn't go anywhere without her. Rose was going to give this place a chance, but knew sooner or later she would want to fly off.

* * *

In the next few days, Rose did small odds and ends about the place: whatever the Committee told her to do, really. What once was a city was now a small town, and soon enough gossip spread all around. She could tell she was being watched by more than just Merlin. Because of him, it seemed that most believed Rose was who she said she was (which she actually didn't tell anyone who she was; they all seemed to know that more than she did herself). Some seemed disappointed, though. Rose briefly overheard a woman note that she had "expected more". There were also others who didn't buy it at all. She preferred them over the ones who were too nice to her.

She didn't approach the castle, and no one prompted her to do so. She also did not see the apprentices around town, although others claimed that they made appearances now and again. No one wanted to talk to Rose about the apprentices because she still believed they were guilty. It was another thing they seemed to be disappointed about in her.

Rose didn't feel like talking to anyone. She would try to say something to Aerith, but the other girl had a way of disarming others, and Rose always felt stupid afterward. Their trip to the mountains was considered by the others, but put off for another time. No one believed there was anyone alive out there.

What bothered her more is the continued presence of Maleficent's tower. If it was true that the witch had moved on to other worlds, then why was her tower still standing? The town should have destroyed it already.

On the other hand, Rose did recall many valuables in that tower. Her duffel bag was still there, full of clothes, papers, and money. Maleficent's old books would be worth a lot of money, if she had left them behind. Rose didn't understand why she would leave when the world was clearly not under her control.

And so after a few days, Rose decided to search the tower by herself. She left Merlin's house early in the morning. Surprisingly, she did not get caught sneaking out. She easily walked to her ship and started it. It didn't take anytime at all to reach Maleficent's tower.

Rose had to look closely to find the library's window, then gently guide the ship against it. This maneuver would have been easier with two people, but she didn't believe anyone in Merlin's house would have agreed to this plan. Except Yuffie, but Rose had a feeling she would rather have a run-in with Maleficent than work with her.

Opening the hull door and moving even closer to the window, Rose let the ship hover in place. The window was large enough that she could fit through with room. With a crowbar, she smashed the glass. It wasn't as though anyone would be around to hear it. With their owner gone, the monsters would be less of a problem. She liked to think so, anyway.

Climbing through the window, she immediately went through the library and through the halls. It was as if she hadn't been gone for such a long time. The room she had stayed in was still the same, and her bag was still in the spot it had been left. Rose took it back to the library, and threw it into the ship.

Museums liked old books, although Rose wasn't sure she could return to old clients without Reed and Brutus. As she tossed books through the window and into the ship, she thought about what she could do with them. Some may be useful to Merlin somehow, and he may be pleased to receive them after Rose had snuck away from him. Some could be used to start a library, which she had noticed that the town lacked. Scattering the collection also felt right to Rose; Maleficent wouldn't have her books when she returned.

The ship's floor was beginning to look cluttered with books strewn about. Some were damaged where they landed. Rose had already gone through them before to know they were all useless to her, and didn't spare them a second glance. At least, she thought she had seen them all before; she soon came across a ornate, blue and grey book. Rose flipped through a few pages, glancing at the pictures of monsters and the odd pictures of hearts. The word "Kingdom Hearts" was mentioned here and there—it was probably the same "Kingdom Hearts" that the Restoration Committee talked about.

A page was missing at the end. That would hurt the book's value. Rose concluded that it would be better to just hand this one to Merlin as well. The last surviving page described an oncoming war over this "Kingdom Hearts", but no outcome.

"Stealing again?"

Rose dropped the book as she turned around quickly. Maleficent stood tall by the door, frowning. Rose attempted to draw her sword, but the witch's staff glowed, and the girl flew back against the windowsill, hitting her head and landing among shards of glass.

"I've played nicely long enough." Maleficent approached to stand over Rose. "Now you will serve me."


	7. Chapter 7

Rose woke on a leather couch in a dark office. The walls were made entirely of wood panels, matching the floorboards in their dark brown lacquer. She stood, then noticed the doctor sitting in a chair across from her. He frowned, clearly frustrated with her.

"We're not done yet." He set down his clipboard. "We need to discuss your latest incident."

"There's nothing to discuss." Rose grumbled. She hadn't seen or even thought about Doctor Samuel in a long time. How did she get here of all places? She wouldn't have come back on her own.

"Take a seat." He stated. There was a faint green orb behind his chair, barely illuminating the jade face, causing her eyes to shine.

"Leave me alone." Rose went for the door, believing that neither Doctor Samuel nor Maleficent would do anything.

She reached the door, swung it open, and everything around her disappeared. Everything was dark, but Rose was still conscious. She tried moving forward, although she had no way of knowing if she really did go anywhere.

It was some time before anything happened. She was not startled, though, when she heard a voice.

"You fight too much."

Surroundings suddenly formed, putting Rose in the orphanage bedroom. She felt smaller in the gaze of Brianne. The elder had her arms crossed as she sat on her bed, frowning at her.

"I'm sorry." For the years Rose had spent loathing the other girl for abandoning her, she was immediately humbled in her presence. She knew she had been awful to deal with.

"You can't be sorry if you keep doing it." Brianne pointed out. She stared at Rose sharply, making the younger girl look away in shame. "You know the caretakers had to assign me to be your friend. I could be spending my time with more enjoyable company, but I have to babysit you."

"I never asked for any of it." Rose insisted. "You made me think you actually cared."

"I made my message clear when I left, didn't I?"

As if to further make her point, Brianne rose from the bed and left through the door. Rose rushed after her, going through as well.

She was no longer in the orphanage. Rose found herself in a parlor from her early childhood. Her father didn't make too many appearances outside of his study because he was always busy with work. Rose had been excited when her mother said that he had taken the afternoon off of work to share some big news. Yet when her father had entered the parlor holding the hand of a boy slightly older than her, dread formed in the pit of Rose's stomach.

"Rose, this is Ienzo. He's your brother now." Her father was happy to tell her that, but the boy tried to hide behind him.

"But I don't want a brother." She said, her throat feeling tight. She felt her mother's hand pet her hair as the adults exchanged glances. Rose only saw Ienzo's face, which also became blurred as her eyes grew watery.

It took a long moment for either adult to say anything, which only made it worse for the children. Rose rubbed her eyes stubbornly. Her mother knelt next to her to wipe at her face with a handkerchief.

"You're always asking for a sibling. I think you two will get along in time." Her mother tried to assure her, but Rose wasn't having it. She shook her head vigorously.

"I don't want a sibling!"

"Rose-" Her father began, but she had had enough. Despite her mother's attempts to hold her there, and her father's attempts to catch her with one arm, Rose ran out of the room. She thought she heard the boy let out a sob, although hers were much louder.

She continued fleeing through a long hallway, which only seemed to get longer. Her father suddenly appeared ahead of her. Without the boy around, Rose tried desperately to catch up to him so she could demand he take the boy back to wherever he found him. Yet the faster she went, the further away her father was.

Rose heard one of the apprentice's shrill voice sound all around her. "Ienzo is a very intelligent boy. Why, even his maturity surpasses those of his age!"

What wasn't said, but implied, was that she couldn't compare to his higher qualities. The boy was always invited into her father's study, yet she had to leave them alone to work. Soon a whole laboratory was built at his request. Her father became even harder to reach.

He suddenly dissipated like smoke, and the surroundings followed suite. She stopped running, no longer a little girl. She had forgotten about that day entirely. Regardless of how old she was, she tried recalling any other memories of her father, as if to summon him, but none surfaced. Of her mother, there were a handful of moments. There were even memories of some of the guards. Yet there was nothing for her father.

While there were no surroundings, Rose remembered Leon's story of what had happened. Her father had survived whatever the apprentices had put him through, and had only died a couple of years ago. In all that time, he hadn't bothered looking for her.

In that time, though, Rose's father had been seeking vengeance. His adopted son was among the traitors, and should have fallen to their father's vengeance. Except he hadn't; none of them had. Her father's efforts were for nothing. Rose wasn't sure what to think about that.

And why did vengeance take so long to accomplish? What else had her father been up to in that time? She didn't want to think about it. She changed her thoughts to her mother, recalling the vision she had had. Her mother had seemed reluctant to talk about her father.

Rose tried to force another vision of her mother, but nothing occurred for a couple of minutes. She could almost remember the woman's face clearly, as well as the warm embrace of her hug. It had ended when her mother had forcefully shoved her away, though. Rose also remembered that.

She kept walking in the darkness because that was all there was to do. She moved cautiously, yet still tripped over something large on the floor. A light flickered alive on the large something, rising and falling with struggling breaths. The large something began gasping and gurgling. Rose had sat up, and now covered her ears in hopes of blocking out the sound. She also shut her eyes tight; she couldn't stand the look Brutus gave her as he laid dying again.

"I didn't mean to." Rose insisted, but what good did that do for him? She had ruined his life, and the lives of his family. At times, it had been enjoyable to work with Brutus. She wished she had sat still and let Reed shoot her, even if he was too drunk and would have missed anyway.

His words echoed: "I had a whole crew before you came along. I shouldn't have brought you back. Now what am I supposed to do with you?"

A hand pulled Rose to her knees by her hair. She opened her eyes to see the captain before her. Brutus continued to wheeze, every breath sounding like his last, and yet he breathed again and again as he watched the two.

"You should have left me to bleed out." Rose grit her teeth against the tight grip pulling at her scalp.

"You're damn right I should have." He growled, letting go to kick her in that old scar. Rose collapsed, feeling the pain of the wound all over again.

As she curled up on her side, the two men disappeared. She had hoped to bleed out, but the scar was intact. It throbbed and burned, causing Rose to hiss from the pain.

It felt like hours that she laid there with a wound that did not bleed. Despite the pain, she began to appreciate her surroundings. There was nothing to see or hear—she was the only one there. Everything else had stopped and left her alone. Maybe Rose had died. Everyone so far had been so truthful, after all. Death wasn't so bad.

Hands grabbed Rose again, but they were gentle this time. Her head was moved onto a softer surface. One hand lingered to brush her hair.

The pain faded from Rose's side. She opened her eyes to look up into her mother's face. The older woman smiled, which made Rose relax as well.

They were sitting against an old tree in an endless wheat field. Rose stretched her legs out, yet kept her head where it was in her mother's lap. They were finally reunited.

"Is this what the afterlife is like?" She looked around. It wasn't bad, but a little boring.

"It is for us." Her mother gazed ahead. "Though I'm sure it's not what you hoped for."

"I expected worse." Rose shrugged.

They settled into silence as a breeze made the field and tree rustle. Along with the hair-stroking, Rose felt completely comfortable where she was. Yet she couldn't forget the gurgling sound Brutus had made, and the look he had given her. She deserved much worse than this place.

As if reading Rose's thoughts, her mother hushed her. "It's over now. You don't need to worry about that anymore. He's moved on, like we have."

"But I still killed someone." Rose pointed out. She should receive punishment for it.

"And you have been killed yourself." Her mother countered. "It's in the past."

Rose settled for that answer, although she wasn't completely happy with it. Feeling uncomfortable in her old position, she sat up and put her head on her mother's shoulder. The older woman put an arm around her shoulders. Rose sighed as she watched the occasional shadow move over the field.

"I saw the boy you and Dad adopted." She brought up after a long moment. "He's all grown up, too."

"How did that go?"

Rose felt some shame as she admitted, "I tried to stab him."

Her mother was amused by it. "You really haven't changed since you were little. You were so heartbroken when your father brought him to the castle. We didn't know what to do."

"That's all I can remember about Dad."

"He was being greedy. We were trying for so long to have one child, and you were finally born, but he wanted a son." Her mother frowned. "His inner circle was comprised of other men, after all."

"Four of his apprentices still live, and they're in the castle." Rose mentioned, remembering how unfair it was.

Her mother grunted. "They wouldn't if I had my way about it."

Smiling, Rose was glad to know of someone who saw it her way. Why did the apprentices deserve to stay in the castle? She had more right than them, although she did not want to claim that right and all of the following responsibilities. Why couldn't her mother have survived? Then they would have always been together, and returned home to oust the traitors and Maleficent. Life would have been the way it should have been.

They sat and listened to the stillness some more. Like the dark place before, Rose found this place pleasant. There was no one else here but her mother, and there was nothing else to see or listen to but the field and the tree. It would not be so bad to stay here for awhile.

It didn't take long for something else to nag at Rose's mind. She knew what Leon had told her, and what her mother had told her before. They didn't match up.

"You said that Dad is not here, right?" Rose brought it up to her mother. "When I was here last—months ago?"

Her mother took a moment to answer, clearly thinking of her response. "Yes."

"Then that means he's still alive, right?"

There was no easy answer—that much was clear from her mother's expression. Her hand brushed through Rose's hair, but it felt more like a claw. "Or he's simply not with us."

"Wouldn't he be, though?" Rose asked. What would keep him from joining them? Vengeance couldn't be any more condemning than accidentally killing someone. "He's probably still alive."

"There's nothing either one of us can do about it." Her mother sat up a little taller, as if to end this discussion. "Didn't I just explain to you that he wanted a son? Don't you remember all the time he spent with the boy instead of us?"

"Maybe things have changed. The boy is one of the traitors now." Rose reasoned.

"We're dead."

"I came back to life before, didn't I? I don't think I should be dead right now."

Shaking her head, her mother began crying. "Why would you think of leaving me, after all this time apart?"

Rose was surprised by the tears. Her mother had always been such a strong person, and the type of person who refused to let others see her cry. She may have been only six-years-old when she lost her mother, but Rose thought that she knew her very well by then. Her mother would have in fact encouraged such thoughts of escape.

She grasped Rose's shoulders, turning serious. "You must stay with me. You won't find what you're looking for. Everything is gone. Your father is a lost cause, our home is in ruins, and the people don't like you. I'm the only one here for you."

Bristling, Rose shoved her mother's hands away. "Our home is being rebuilt, and the people can shove it."

She stood, noticing the forest behind their tree. She ran for it without hesitation, but stopped as she was about to enter.

"Rosemary!"

Her mother had stood as well and come a few steps in her direction, but no further from the tree. A breeze picked up to blow a strand of hair across her pained face. She reached for Rose, then put her arm down. Rose turned her back and entered the forest.

After a few steps inside, the foliage turned from green to grey. Everything darkened. She looked back, but there were only dead trees as far as she could see. She decided to move forward.

She wasn't sure what she was supposed to find in this place, or where she was going. All the trees had lost their leaves, revealing the cloudy sky intermittently between branches. The leaves covered the ground, grey and brown—not at all colorful like they should have been. The path ahead and behind were both indiscernible; the path darkened before and after Rose. She wouldn't be able to return to her mother and the field. By now, she doubted their authenticity.

There was suddenly whispering in the trees. Rose stopped and looked around, but she was the only one there. It became louder until her own voice came through.

"This is only going to lead to more disappointment."

Rose reached to her side, but her sword wasn't there. She braced herself for a surprise. "I have to see for myself first. Besides, I want to go back to my ship."

"He worked all the time, and only stopped to adopt a boy. Look what that got him. He didn't even come to look for you when you were an orphan, just like the boy."

"So? I managed."

"You're a smuggler, and a murderer."

"Worse people still live. It's not as though vengeance-seeking is completely innocent, either." Rose countered herself.

"Are you sure you want to find him?"

She thought for a moment, realizing that she had no idea how to start. "It wouldn't hurt. What's the worst that could happen?"

"He'll favor the boy over you again. He'll wish you were dead with Mom. He'll be disappointed in you. He won't remember you. He'll-"

"There has to be at least one good memory of him." Rose cut off her other voice before the list could get longer, and she would find reason to abandon everything. She mulled over her memories, trying to find her earliest ones.

"Your memory is such a mess. There's no point."

Rose ignored that other voice as she continued to try to recall anything. Her memories were indeed a mess, and plenty of nonsensical fragments came up: Reed barking orders, the jeers of other orphans, and the death rattle of Brutus. They joined the whispering in the trees. The woods were suddenly very noisy. Despite that, Rose persisted.

Suddenly the forest was gone. She had one eye squinted as she looked through a lens, seeing a faraway planet more clearly than she would have with her own eyes.

"What's that place?" Rose asked, her voice the high pitch of a child. She was small again; she pulled away from the eyepiece of the telescope to look at her father, who was standing behind her.

"I don't know." He didn't seem to mind that he did not know, either. "Yet someday I believe we will be able to travel there. Only then will we know more."

"I wanna go! Can I? Please?" Rose bounced slightly on the stool she was sitting on.

Her father chuckled and pat her head. "I'm sure you will someday. You'll see and know far more of other worlds, and ours, than I ever will."

He had a point. Rose had already told everyone how she wanted to explore beyond the city's walls (albeit her attention was drawn more towards the forests and mountains than towards the endless sea), and she wanted to visit every star in the sky, as her father had already explained that they were individual worlds themselves.

Rose now had spun herself around on the stool to face her father, her legs dangling well above the floor. "Can't you go exploring too?" With her, of course.

"I'm afraid I cannot leave the city. There is too much work that I must do. I know it has been taking up too much of my time." Her father admitted.

"So does Ienzo." Rose mumbled, becoming sullen.

He sighed. "Ienzo needs a family. He has been through a lot. He may need a little more attention now, but I'm sure you two will learn to be good friends."

She gave a pout. "I don't think so."

"It won't hurt to try." He pat her head again. "Your mother and I still love you, and we always will."

Rose thought it over a bit. "Okay."

It wasn't much of an answer, but it seemed to please her father. He also seemed to notice the time. "We should put you back to bed, before your mother finds out."

"I'm not tired." Rose quickly replied, then decided to negotiate. "I want another story."

"Alright. Come along, little one." He began leading the way out of the observatory. Rose hopped off the stool and followed closely behind, enjoying the idea that she was going to get two bedtime stories, whereas Ienzo probably had only heard one that night.

The grey forest appeared as Rose came back to focus. It was silent again. She even sensed that she was alone. While the sky and trees were omnimous, Rose felt some relief—as if she could breathe a little better now.

Perhaps it was because she was able to recall a somewhat complete memory, and remember it so vividly. It was better than pretending to remember people and places, as she had to do when she was first rehired by Reed. It was also better than dealing with the sudden appearance of fragmented memories that made no sense at the time, but sat at the front of her mind for awhile. Rose thought about recalling more, if she could, but realized the path had opened up ahead; there was an opening, where the trees stopped.

She eagerly moved forward. It appeared that the path led into a green clearing, but the moment Rose stepped beyond the trees, she was suddenly in a large, dark hall. The walls were cracked and debris littered the floor, except for where there were holes. She walked forward a few steps, then realized this was the castle at home.

It wasn't long before she had company; a dark creature rose from the floor. It wasn't quite a Heartless—this looked more human than those. It swayed in place for a moment, then lunged at Rose. She dodged. It took a moment to regain its balance.

"You ruined my crew." It hissed as it turned to face Rose again. "You killed him!"

She scowled. She was tired of hearing that. Picking up a chunk of fallen wall, she threw it at the monster. It was knocked on the head, falling over and fading away.

Rose picked up another chunk of wall, assuming there would be others. She knew she was responsible for Brutus's death, but she hadn't been there when the others left. She had to wonder what Reed did that drove them away.

She moved on and climbed a staircase. She had a feeling that she needed to go higher in order to make sense of this place. Rose was making good progress through this level, but froze when she heard gurgling behind her.

A large monster—human-like as the last one had been—had snuck up from behind. It just stood there, dumb. Its rattled breathing was enough to shake Rose.

"I'm sorry." She almost pleaded. "I didn't know—I was ambushed, and you came up from behind without your light..."

Her words did nothing for the monster, or herself. It continued to rattle and stand there. Rose wanted it to stop.

She suddenly became angry. Brutus had approached Rose without his flashlight, and her own had stopped working because of Maleficent. The witch had planned it. She made sure to ruin whatever good thing Rose may have had in life. Her home, her family, her friends, and even her memories. This was all something of Maleficent's doing, too.

Despite the height difference, Rose held her rock high, and brought it down onto the monster's head. It collapsed languidly at that, but continued to breathe its death rattle. She pounced on it, bashing its head with the rock until it finally faded.

Rose sat there for a long moment, finally letting go of the rock. She loathed Reed for what had happened, too. Everything about him bothered her: his drinking, his paranoia, and how he blamed Rose so much for Brutus's death. It was obvious that Reed had done something to drive Trish and Cliff away, and had carelessly let Wanda get hurt, which led to her death as well. He had assumed all of his bad luck came from Rose.

She finally stood and moved on from the hall, and was left alone for awhile. She was beginning to realize that all of the halls were identical, as if she wasn't making any progress in moving forward. Still, Rose had to keep going. She climbed a large staircase, moving up a few levels, before she was confronted again in another hall.

The next monster stood waiting, its demeanor naturally restrained. Rose paused, wondering if this monster would be the same as the last. It was suddenly a lot closer, swiping at the girl. She was knocked aside.

"Can't you just be normal? Quit acting like such a child." It snapped as it approached Rose. She pushed herself up, looking around for something to use as a weapon.

"We were good friends, but you're too selfish." For as much as Rose had always reprimanded herself for upsetting Brianne in some way, she was tired of it. Why was she always to blame, and why did she let Brianne's feelings bother her, when her own never bothered Brianne? "You don't care about me now, so why should I care about you?"

The monster had drawn close, and was about to scratch Rose again, but at her words, it screeched. It became even blurrier, then faded away. Rose waited for a surprise attack.

It came in a different form, charging at her. She sidestepped, again looking for something to hurt the new monster with. Rose had to continue to sidestep, as the monster was persistent. Eventually, it overtook her and knocked her down.

"You left me. You should be with me." It whined, digging its claws into Rose.

"You're not her!" She finally shoved the monster off, then ran for the doors at the end of the hall. None of the monsters were the people they appeared to be. It spoke the thoughts that Rose tried to shove to the back of her mind. Somehow, she was in a convincing, never-ending nightmare.

The doors had been slightly open, and Rose easily slipped past them. They were heavy; she almost didn't close them in time to block out the monster. She leaned against them as it scratched on the other side and howled. Once the monster quieted, Rose assumed it had gone off somewhere else.

She was now in an open room. It was circular and dark. There wasn't any furniture in the room to tell what it was. Doors to a balcony had been left open, and Rose was pulled through them.

The kingdom was in ruins again. It didn't look too nice before, but now it looked even worse. All of the flora was dead, leaving everything grey and brown. The sky was grey as far as one could see while standing in the very tall tower. There were more monsters in the streets than people. The Restoration Committee's efforts had been for nothing.

Rose happened to look down at her hands, or where her hands were supposed to be on the railing of the balcony. The faintly green hands had long fingers, with sharp red nails.

She fell backwards, shaking her hands, as if it would make the illusion go away. She scrambled back into the tower, yet it wasn't a trick from the lighting. Rose looked frantically at her surroundings, but they remained the same, and she was alone. She then decided to shut her eyes and ignore it until it would go away. When it eventually came off, it pulled away painfully. It reminded Rose of that crystal ball.

"You weren't supposed to make it this far."

Rose looked up from where she had huddled up on the floor. Maleficent stood on the opposite side of the room, frowning.

"Haven't I given you everything you wanted? And yet you demand for more." She said. Suddenly Maleficent stood over Rose, grasping the girl by the jaw and pulling her to her knees. "No matter. Your body is mine, and your heart is no longer needed."

Before Rose could pull herself free, Maleficent shoved her back to the floor. She raised her staff, the orb glowing. Yet before she could strike, a form stepped between them and slashed at the witch. She was knocked back.

The new woman pulled Rose up as Maleficent took a moment to recover. Rose looked from the older woman's face, focused on the witch, and the sword in her hand. "Mom-"

Shaking her head, the woman kept focused. "I'm just your memories of her, but you can call me that if it makes it easier. I can't fight this for you—Move!"

Rose's mother pushed her aside as a green fireball came their way. She charged at the witch, swinging her sword. When she didn't land the hit, she dodged Maleficent's counterattack. For a memory, Rose's mother seemed to know just how to fight a witch.

For awhile, Rose stood by and watched them go back and forth. Maleficent relied on magic, but Rose's mother was persistent. Rose didn't ever remembering watching her mother use a sword, yet it had no effect on the memory of her. She slashed and stabbed at Maleficent, sometimes hitting the mark, sometimes not. Maleficent likewise hit hers.

Eventually she knocked Rose's mother back with a wall of fire, then raised her staff again. She brought it down hard, and the woman ceased to move. It was almost as Rose remembered it.

She rushed to her mother's side. There was no life in her, but she looked content with that. Rose could still remember her mother, and assumed that meant the memories weren't dead.

"Now then," Maleficent made to grab at Rose, but the girl picked up her mother's fallen sword and jabbed at the witch, cutting her forearm through the long black sleeve. Maleficent recoiled, then used a magical force to knock Rose further away.

She quickly got up and readjusted her grip on the sword. It was bulkier than what she was used to, so she widened her stance to accommodate it.

"For such a miserable child, you resist too much." Maleficent began to approach Rose. "I can give you all the power you could want. As you've said yourself, you don't care for people. They clearly do not care about you, either. Why, they don't even seem happy that you're alive."

"Shut up!" Rose closed the distance between them and swung the sword widely. With a swing of her own staff, Maleficent caused the sword to fly off to the side. Pointing the orb towards Rose, she cast a spell that bound the girl in place. The witch grasped Rose's throat, digging her nails into her flesh.

"Give up. I can give you exactly what you want, so long as you let me have what I need." Maleficent spoke sweetly, as if it would convince Rose. The spell kept her from speaking, but she could still spit in the witch's face. The woman was shocked by it, yet quickly backhanded her face in return. The binding spell wore off just in time for Rose to be knocked aside.

She pushed herself up, wiping a bit of blood away from her bottom lip, where one of Maleficent's rings had caught her. Rose looked for her mother's sword, then ran for it. Maleficent caught her from behind, wrapping her arm around the girl's throat to restrain her again. Rose wasted no time in biting into her arm. She was quickly released, scrambling towards the sword again.

"You miserable brat!" Maleficent snapped. Just as Rose was about to touch the sword, it flew across the room to another spot on the floor. Another binding spell was cast on Rose, causing her to fall over on the floor.

Maleficent approached and used the end of her staff to roll Rose onto her back. She then jabbed the staff into Rose's side, into the scar she had once healed. Pain suddenly erupted in the girl's abdomen, just as painful as the bullets had been months beforehand. Rose cried out, but could not move to stop Maleficent. The witch twisted her staff a bit in that place before pulling it away.

"Are you finished now?" She asked, quirking her eyebrows as she observed Rose. She felt the spell wear off, but couldn't move from the pain. Darkness began to seep into her vision, as if the tower room was suddenly far away. Rose tried to resist falling into the black.

Kneeling down, Maleficent held a hand over Rose's heart. "Sleep, and the pain will go away."

The darkness became harder to resist, and she could hardly see Maleficent. The darkness was tempting. It would be easier if Rose just went to sleep. The pain seemed to subside, just as Maleficent said it would. If her mother couldn't defeat the witch, what made her think she could?

She didn't know exactly what she wanted, as she had been vague. Rose didn't understand all this talk about hearts. Whatever spell was being cast over her own heart made her feel drained. Giving up meant that Maleficent could do whatever she wanted to to her. Considering everything Rose had gone through to get here, and her home, she didn't want those to get ruined. She wouldn't give Maleficent the satisfaction.

This place didn't make a lot of sense. Rose could feel the hilt of the sword near her hand, yet Maleficent was too focused on her spell. Though it took a lot more effort than it should have, Rose lifted the blade and stuck it in Maleficent's side. The witch howled and moved away, the spell broken. The pain in Rose's own side returned, and as did her consciousness. She got up and lunged at Maleficent clumsily. The sword sank into her side again.

The tower room began to shake and crack. Large pieces suddenly fell away. Maleficent was just as surprised as Rose, yet she was less distracted by it and grabbed the girl as the floor fell away beneath them. The sword disappeared from Rose's hand. She tried to pull Maleficent's grip off of herself.

"You're mine, girl!" The witch was very close, but Rose couldn't see her—or anything—as they were falling together. There were plenty of other voices in the dark. "I'll lock you deep in your own heart, where you'll never see light again!"

The darkness gave some way to images. They weren't Rose's memories. In one, she saw her mother and herself kneeling at the main entrance of the castle, looking rough from their journey. In a flash of green, her mother fell over dead. It wasn't from the perspective Rose remembered.

Another image soon followed: a page from an old book, with an illustration of a strange black box. Maleficent's order echoed, although Rose could not see who was there to hear it. "Find it!"

The witch's grip became tighter after they passed that memory; clearly it was something Rose wasn't supposed to see. Despite the struggle, Maleficent was blurry—as if she was fading away. She was using Rose as an anchor.

"Get OFF!" Like the sword's immediate appearance in her hand before, Rose suddenly had the strength to push Maleficent away. She disintegrated in the darkness, yet Rose continued to fall in it.

She was suddenly aware that it was quiet. The memories had quieted, and flew by too fast for Rose to see. They had to be hers, although the deeper they went, the more unfamiliar they were.

Rose came to a sudden stop, shocked by the impact. Yet her body laid in place as if it had been there for awhile. She couldn't move, and it wasn't just because she was half-buried in snow already. Her body did not even shake against the cold. They grey sky above continued to let snow fall.

Something came up from behind and sniffed at Rose, eventually coming around to reveal itself to be a long-legged dog. He sniffed some more, huffed, licked her face, whined, and started digging at her side.

"Go... away." Rose found it too laborious to speak, and she was losing consciousness. She felt the dog lay on top of her and heard him begin howling. Then it all faded away as she returned to the darkness.

The memories were very loud this time. Rose covered her ears against the cacophony. The jeers of children broke through, tauntingly calling her "princess" and "loony". She found herself in a classroom just in time to see her own fist fly into a large boy's face. It was also at that moment that the teacher walked in, and sent Rose to the corner. There were many other memories like this.

Childish jeers turned into orders bellowed over the monotonous drone of machinery. Rose was suddenly dashing about the engine room of Reed's ship, going from one giant part to the next as Brutus stayed in one corner of the room. She couldn't remember why the engine had begun to fail, but she and the two mechanics had managed it long enough for the ship to land somewhere.

The machinery dislodged itself from the floor as the scene faded away. Rose dodged as one large piece came straight for her. It, along with various other pieces of memory, ascended into nothingness as she continued to fall. Suddenly, she found herself in another position: that of flying the shuttle for the first time. Reed stood behind her seat, giving directions from time to time. As jarring as all these changes were, Rose had to smile while flying the shuttle.

A loud bang sounded as the memory changed to a blue sky. Rose was lying on her back, an ache in her side and dust in her mouth. That memory was silent; she began to hear another voice from a different memory.

"It's a shame you can't have kids." Brianne's voice initiated another change of scenery. She and Rose were sitting on the steps that lead into the play yard, watching the younger children play games they had played when they were that age.

"I don't think so. I've had enough of kids from this place." Rose shrugged. "What's the big deal about having kids, anyway?"

"Because we can as women."

"That's a load of crap. I'd rather learn what the boys learn. It'd be more interesting to learn a trade." Both in and out of the memory, Rose could feel the disappointment coming from Brianne.

"You know, all tomboys grow up eventually. You'll find a man and change your tune." The older girl sat up straighter. Back then, she did make Rose feel inferior. Now, Rose could see all of Brianne's flaws. She had never been a good friend. Rose couldn't understand why she spent so long yearning for the girl's favor. She wanted to break the memory by telling the other girl so, but the memory had already ended.

Rose was suddenly standing before Maleficent. They were both in her tower again. Rose couldn't move to attack her; she simply stood there. The witch was pleased to see her.

"It's like I said—you were so heartbroken. And you didn't witness what your father's apprentices had done to him." She explained. "It's tragic to have one's family turn on them."

"Is that what happened?" Rose asked as part of the memory, but she could remember this very well.

"Yes. The apprentices carried on your father's experiments when he stopped. You were much too young to know anything about that." Maleficent looked so pleased to be the one to explain this to Rose first; she hated that. "They dabbled too deep in the darkness without knowing what they were doing. No one could stop them. They paid the price in the end, but not before your parents."

Except they hadn't. Rose now knew that four of the six apprentices had come back to life, but her parents had not. It wasn't fair!

All her life, she had hoped to return home, even if she hadn't believed in it. Rose had expected everything to be fine: there would be no construction, the castle would be in one piece, the apprentices would be deemed traitors and banished or dead, and at least one parent would be overjoyed at her return. Rose had had her heart set on such a situation, and yet the truth was that everything was still in ruins. It was because of the apprentices.

"That's it. Feed your darkness." Maleficent spoke again, breaking from her role in the memory. The scenery remained the same. "How is it that you suffer the most, when you didn't even contribute to the whole story? Why, they treat you like the traitor."

As evil as Maleficent was, she usually had a point. While no one in town had been comfortable even referencing the apprentices in conversation, they did not treat Rose much differently. She didn't do or say what they wanted her to. They had expected someone else, if they even remembered there being a princess. Many didn't believe that Rose was who Merlin said she was. She wished she had remained unknown.

At the thought of the wizard, he appeared not far from Maleficent nor Rose. Leon accompanied him, looking as annoyed as Rose had always seen him.

"They don't have a clear recollection of their betrayal. Ienzo was a child at the time. They claim they were under the influence of Xehanort, and he is one of the three who haven't come back yet." Leon repeated his words from what seemed like a very long time ago. "Their story checks out, as far as I'm concerned. They already got whatever they deserved."

"They tried to destroy this world!" Rose repeated her own words from the memory, having no control of herself as she did. "They're the reason that this place has to be rebuilt!"

"Xehanort had control over them. He was the one who started it. It was Maleficent and her Heartless that caused most of this destruction."

Rose didn't know what to think. She didn't know how someone could have so much control over others that they did not know what they were doing. The apprentices had taken Xehanort, the newest member of their circle, as their leader and attempted to kill her father. When that didn't succeed, Rose's father sacrificed himself in an attempt to kill the apprentices. It all seemed for nothing.

She recalled her mother's execution from the memory that wasn't her own—Maleficent's memory. Rose herself was so still in the moment, watching everything unfold. Beyond them, there were many fires dotting the city, and the walls were crumbling.

"Listen to Leon." Merlin spoke up, bringing Rose's attention back to the tower where they all stood. Leon stood perfectly still, as if he was a statue now. "You know it's possible that the apprentices are mostly innocent-"

"Quiet, you old fool!" Maleficent snapped. "Rosemary, they have taken your rightful home. Trust in the darkness to give you the power to take it back."

"You mustn't! You must learn their side of the story, my lady." Merlin urged. "We have all gotten tired of assigning blame."

He was right. Rose was tired of fighting and being angry. She wanted everything to be fixed as the way they used to be, but was it wrong to accept things as they were? How was Rose supposed to know how things used to be when she had been too young at the time? She didn't want to fight anymore. Rose just wanted to go home and be left alone. She didn't understand anything about this darkness that Maleficent craved and Merlin abhorred. Rose didn't care for it, nor any Kingdom Heart they may desire. All of this was more complicated than it needed to be.

"I can give you everything you want." Maleficent spoke up. "Simply accept your own darkness, and whatever you desire shall be yours."

"Only if it's convenient for you." Rose pointed out, remembering the earlier illusions that Maleficent tried to trick her with. "I'll get whatever I want by myself."

Her answer pleased Merlin, but the witch's expression turned sour. "So be it. I'll pull your darkness forward myself."

With the glow of her staff, Maleficent gestured towards Rose. The small orb at the top of the shaft began pulling at Rose's being. She could not break away from it, and fell forward on hands and knees. She felt drained again.

"No!" Merlin pulled a wand from his robes and cast a spell at Maleficent. Their magics conflicted, and the tower room quickly began falling apart. The two fell quickly out of sight, and Leon simply disappeared.

Rose began falling in the darkness again. Memories came and went too fast for her to comprehend them. Their noise was impossible to understand.

Something suddenly fell onto Rose and held on tight. Despite her attempts to shove it off, it would not let go. She kicked at its legs, and that seemed to loosen the grip.

"It's not fair!" The creature hissed. "They took everything from me!"

It let go to swipe at Rose, sending her off to land on a chunk of stone. She wasn't left alone for long before the dark being pounced on her again. She tried punching its head, but that didn't work very well. So Rose grappled with it until they rolled off of the edge and continued falling together.

"It should be mine!" The monster cried. Rose had to wonder if that was what she truly thought. They seized each other by the necks, trying to snuff each other out. The monster drove Rose into some memory debris, gaining the upper hand as she became disoriented.

She thought about giving in as she was losing consciousness. She wouldn't get what she wanted by becoming this monster. In the end, if the apprentices were killed and Rose took the castle for her own, its desires would not make her happy. That would indeed make her worse than the apprentices. Whatever she wanted, it definitely wasn't that.

With the last bit of strength she had, Rose pulled her head back, then threw it forward at the monster's skull. It let go with a yelp. Rose tucked her legs to her torso and kicked out at the monster, sending it further away from herself, and accelerating her descent.

Rose suddenly jerked forward into consciousness in a dark room. She laid cozily underneath a heavy quilt, and still could not move. She glimpsed two people standing over her, one of which stroked his beard. It all faded away slower than it had come, but Rose was not conscious for long.

She was left in the dark. It took awhile for more memories to appear. The new ones that soon took place were unfamiliar, and came one at a time. They were about a time and home she hardly recognized.

"Uncle Braig!" Her tiny voice cried a couple of times as the moment formed. As a little girl, she ran to the guard with the bandaged face, who was sitting in a remote part of the castle, as if he was trying to have some time to himself. Little Rose had never considered that she might have been unwanted at the moment, but as a teen, she could read the signs clearly.

Nevertheless, the lanky guard ruffled her hair. "Hey, kiddo." Usually he was more animated when Rose came around.

"What happened? Was it a monster?" Her little self sounded very worried. She was obviously looking at the bandages, although now she couldn't remember if she was looking for signs of gore or not.

The guard offered a pained smile, which was probably a result from his wounds. "Yup. A huge one. Even bigger than Aeleus. But we all took care of it, so you don't have to worry."

The news didn't seem to have an effect on Rose. She tried standing a little taller. "Someday I'm gonna fight monsters, too!"

"I'm sure you will!" The guard laughed and ruffled her hair some more. He was about to say something else, but the scene changed, and he disappeared with it.

Still little, Rose found herself skipping along a cobblestone path. She found the guard she was looking for at his usual station.

"Dilan!" She called for his attention, as he was the most focused on his job, and the grumpiest person she knew. She held up a handful of flowers for him to look at. "Here!"

He offered a rare smile and took the flowers. "Thank you."

"My mom helped me pick them!" Rose was proud of herself. "She said they're lilies."

"They are indeed." The guard nodded. "You should run along, lest there be monsters about."

"Okay!" And off she ran.

Rose was even younger in the next memory, but she towered over everything while riding the shoulders of a very large guard. The corridors were dark, and her bedroom even darker when the guard opened the door.

He set her down and went inside. Rose watched as he looked underneath her bed, then in the closet. He came back and pat her on the head. "All clear. There's no monsters."

"Are you sure?" Rose pouted.

"Absolutely." He smiled.

His answer pleased her, and she crawled back into bed. He stayed to make sure she would settle back down. That also gave her time to ask the guard a question. "Aelus, what are giants scared of?"

The guard thought for a moment. "Well, giants are scared about the same things everyone else are."

"Why? Giants can squish everything that bothers them." Rose pointed out.

He only chuckled. "It's okay to be scared. It's the first part of being brave."

She nodded to his advice, although it didn't answer her question at all. She made a face in the dark to show that she could be brave too. The guard couldn't see it.

"Do you need anything else?"

"No."

"Good night, Rose."

"Night, Aelus."

When the door shut, the memory faded into black again. Another memory soon followed, though.

Rose stood beside a desk as a tall apprentice was busy writing something. She waited patiently for him to finish, but when he addressed her anyway, she decided to ask her question.

"Why isn't eleven called onety-one?"

The apprentice considered her question for a moment. Now older, Rose could tell by the way his brows quirked that he was disappointed.

"Because it just isn't. Eleven and twelve are just what they are called." He bent over his writing again, strands of his long blond hair falling as well.

"But why?" Rose persisted.

"It has been this way for as long as our language has existed. It's a rather silly question, don't you think?"

"Not at all." A deep voice entered the room. Rose's father came beside her from behind. "There's nothing silly about questioning why things are they way they are. Such questions can lead to discoveries and changes no one else has thought of before. Rose may indeed be on to something."

Rose beamed, smiling smugly at the apprentice. He ignored her and bowed his head towards her father. "Of course, my lord."

The men continued talking, but the memory faded before Rose could catch onto anything. That was probably because her younger self reached the end of her attention span, and the conversation bored her out of her mind.

She wasn't left alone for long before another memory appeared, that of the blue-haired boy—the one her parents adopted and dressed like an apprentice—doing his best to hide behind a large book. If he wanted to be alone, young Rose was completely oblivious to it.

"You sure do read a lot." She tried making conversation, then opened the book in her hands to a specific page and pointed to a word. "What's this word?"

At first, the boy didn't reply, most likely trying his best to ignore her until she went away. Granted, any time they had interacted before usually left one or both of them in tears. Yet he soon peeked over his book to look at hers.

"Superfluous." The boy said.

"Superfluless." Rose repeated a couple of times, each time slightly different. "What's that mean?"

"Excessive." He said. "Too much."

She nodded slowly, as if she knew the answer. Without asking or being asked, she plopped herself on the parlor couch next to the boy. He hid behind his book again. Rose continued where she left off in hers.

A few short moments later, she pointed to another word to show him. "What's this?"

The boy looked again, looking annoyed at being interrupted in his own reading. "Spurious. False."

Rose repeated the word to herself. She looked at the big book he was reading. The title was hard to pronounce, and the cover didn't have any pictures on it. "Does your tutor make you read really big boring books?"

"They're not boring. They have information. I have to study."

"Why? I don't have to study."

"I just do." The boy stated, his tone conveying that he wanted to end this conversation before Rose started yelling and made him cry. He had seemed so small when they had first met, but now was much more mature than kids his age. He was especially more mature than Rose.

She thought over his words, then offered her book to him. "Here. Read this."

The boy had hid behind his book again, but seemed to know what she was doing. "I don't have time for stories."

"C'moooon. Just try it. Dad reads this to me all the time." Usually right before bedtime, when Rose did not care so much what the words meant; she was just happy to be having quality time with her father. "Doesn't he read to you, too?"

After a couple of seconds, the boy shut his giant book and put it aside. He took Rose's much smaller book and began reading it. Rose decided to read along with him, even if he had gone all the way back to the beginning. The boy wasn't happy to have her reading over his shoulder, but he didn't tell her that she couldn't.

Rose couldn't read the book from her memory, especially as it changed again. She was suddenly outside. Having been shown what to put out of the ground and what was supposed to stay, she was helping to weed the garden. Her mother was nearby, pulling weeds out much faster that she was. Rose had to always double-check before pulling weeds out. Her mother wouldn't have been happy if it had turned out to be a flower.

One weed, though, seemed to have deep roots. Rose continued to pull on it, but it budged ever so slowly. More and more of the root came out of the ground, as if it would never end. She stood and dug her heels into the dirt. Maybe it was a plant that just looked like a weed.

"Rose?" Her mother noticed that she had gone quiet and still. She came around the huge honeysuckle bush to see what trouble the little girl was getting into now.

It was then that the root finally gave way, snapping somewhere deep underground. Rose tumbled over herself as she fell backwards. Dirt was sprayed over both of them. She sat up and shook her head. Then she grinned and showed her mother the weed, which stretched out to be taller than herself. The woman chuckled.

"Good job." She dusted herself off a bit. "But try not to wear that much dirt."

Rose grinned and giggled. No matter what, she always got dirty.

The scene suddenly changed again. Rose was no longer small, but her current age. She stood in a green glade, the trees far enough apart to allow patches of blue sky to be seen above.

For a couple of minutes, Rose was alone. She appreciated it, but could not ever remember having a memory of such a place. Her memories must have finally come to an end. There was nothing to fight any more.

Footsteps sounded behind her. Rose turned to find her mother had approached. They quickly hugged.

"It's definitely you this time?" Rose asked. "Not just a memory, or an illusion?"

"I'm real." Her mother confirmed, petting her hair. "I'm not a trick."

Rose sighed in relief, although she didn't completely feel it. "Then am I dead this time?"

"No. Almost, but you will live." Her mother pulled away to look at her face. "Your father spent so long researching the heart, and yet it continues to baffle him. The bonds of the heart are not something science can explain."

Taking a moment to think that over, Rose realized what she meant. "We're in my heart?"

"Yes. I think it's because of my death that I'm able to be here." Her mother hugged her again, although not so long this time. She began leading her on a trail. "Though I don't think you'll be able to come back here once you leave. It's not good to come in so deep into one's heart like this. In fact, I don't want to see you here again once you have left. It wouldn't do well to lament the past like this. I want you to move on."

"How?" Rose asked. She had so much to think about, and she was no less confused than before.

It took a long moment for her mother to reply, and it seemed that her silence had a purpose. "This deep in your heart, there is only truth. You know your father's apprentices are innocent."

"Yes." She wasn't reluctant to say it, unlike other times.

"They have always been family to you. They may not be the ones you had in mind to return to, but they are family nonetheless. You have to forgive them."

"I don't want to." Rose was reluctant about this.

"Rose," Her mother sighed. "You have the stubbornness of both of your parents."

They walked for awhile in silence. A breeze rustled the leaves above, but there were no birds in the trees. Aside from their footsteps and the leaves, it was quiet. Rose was glad to experience such peace.

"We were so close to home." Her mother eventually spoke again. "You would have loved it. It wasn't as exciting as the city, but an adventurous child like you would have really enjoyed herself."

"It's probably all gone now." Rose mused, then realized she shouldn't have said something that would cause her mother more grief.

Her mother smiled. "I think you'll be surprised. Country folk are hardier than city people."

"I hope so. No one in the city seems to like me."

"They didn't like me, either. Don't let it bother you. Though I'm sure you'll be able to patch things up with the apprentices. You have good memories of them, and I'm sure they have the same for you."

Rose shrugged. "I tried to kill that boy."

"Ienzo? Well, just don't try again. Hopefully you'll both learn to get along better now that you're older." Her mother stated. "You've both made mistakes. Everyone has made a mistake somewhere in all of this. You need to forgive them."

"You never did answer my question." Rose changed the subject as it dawned on her. Neither her real mother in the afterlife, nor the illusion, had answered her question. "Where is Dad? Everyone believes he is dead, but you said before that he is not."

"... He's not." Her mother confirmed. "I honestly don't know. He is in a place like death. As I've said before, you should focus on the family that you have."

Nodding, Rose accepted the answer. She felt exhausted. Her mother stopped to hug her tightly again.

"Is it time for me to go?" Rose guessed. She didn't want to leave, and hoped her own tight embrace around her mother expressed that.

Her mother kissed her forehead. "Yes."

"I don't want to."

"I know. We'll never be able to speak like this again, but know that I am always here." Her mother pet her hair once more. "Live your life. I'm proud of you, and I'll always love you."

Their hug felt different, as if Rose's whole body was tightly embraced. Opening her eyes—truly opening them—she found herself in a bedroom, the bed in one corner. Aside from a wardrobe, a nightstand, and an oil lamp, there was no other furniture. The window was boarded up, causing the whole room to be dark, save for the thin bit of light that seeped through the boards and underneath the door.

Rose was tucked in bed with two quilts. She felt hazy as she struggled to free her arms. Her efforts loosened the quilts around her, but it was too cold in the room to have her arms above the blankets. Underneath the covers, her body was too hot.

She was suddenly overcome by a coughing fit that could not be stifled. It left her desperate for air, and it took a couple of minutes before she could finally breathe normal again. There was a glass of water on the nightstand, but Rose accidentally knocked it to the floor when she attempted to grab it.

All of her noise soon caused the door to open, and a squat woman entered. She carried a candle with her, which splashed her lined face with an orange glow. Seeing that Rose was awake, the woman set the candle on the nightstand, pulled a small object from a pocket, and proceeded to light the oil lamp. It shone much brighter than the candle.

"Are you warm enough?" The woman asked, her voice having a slight rasp to it. She pressed a hand to Rose's forehead, holding the girl's head in place. "You're still burning."

"Y-yes." Rose managed to respond when the hand was retracted. Speaking caused her to go into another coughing fit. It sounded wet. Once that subsided, she took large gulps of air and fought off smaller coughs.

The woman left with her candle, leaving the door open. A minute later, a four-legged creature entered, sniffing all the way up the bed until it came to Rose's face. She tried to shove its muzzle away, to which it responded by climbing onto the bed, settling in the small space between her and the wall.

"Dumb dog." Rose mumbled, feeling herself drifting. Her body was quite warm underneath the covers, but it was a pleasant sort of heat. The dog's body temperature only added to it, keeping the cold out.

She assumed she had only dozed for a few minutes when the woman returned with a tray and a brush. Rose stirred again at the sound of glass being swept up near the bed. The dog wagged his tail, beating the wall and her leg.

"Sit up." The woman said once she finished cleaning up the mess. She helped Rose sit up in the bed and propped the pillows behind her. She set the tray over Rose's lap, sparking further interest from the dog.

"I fed you already." The woman scolded the dog. "Get down."

He understood the order, stepping over Rose and getting off the bed with a huff. The dog sat next to the bed and watched them intently.

Rose didn't take long to look at the bowl of stew in front of her before she realized that she was starving. And yet, she felt too tired to eat. She did it anyway, although slower than she would have liked. The stew and accompanying tea were both hot enough to compensate for how cold her upper body felt without the covers.

"You have a very good dog." The woman stated. "Hunters say he was making all kinds of noise and scaring off the game. They found him trying to dig you out of the snow during a storm."

"He's not my dog. I don't have a dog." Rose explained slowly. She was still so sleepy. The food and drink made it easier to speak, though.

"It seems that you do now. He's been very anxious about you." The woman shrugged, patting the dog on the head. She moved across the room and opened the wardrobe. When she returned to the bedside, she was carrying a sword. "Where did you get this?"

The red jewel on the end of the grey hilt was familiar to Rose. "It was my mother's."

Raising her brows, the woman seemed skeptical. "What's your name?"

"Rose." Another coughing fit came over her, and her upper body shook with it.

"Short for Rosemary?" The woman asked once Rose relaxed again. She simply nodded, finishing the last of the stew.

Once she was finished with the tea as well, the woman set the tray aside on the nightstand and put the sword back into the wardrobe. Rose slunk under the quilts again, grateful for their warmth. The woman observed her for a long moment.

"You should try to get more rest. You're very sick." She finally said. She took the tray and her brush, and gestured for the dog to follow her out of the room. He followed after a long moment of indecisiveness. Rose fell asleep as the door shut.


	8. Chapter 8

Her dreams were a blur of images and memories that made no sense. At times, the dreams seemed to continue while she was awake, which was probably due to the fever. When Rose wasn't sleeping, it was often that the mysterious woman brought her more food and tea, or drew a bath for her. The small trip from the bed to the hot water was freezing for Rose, but it was worth it in the end.

She didn't keep count of the days, but eventually the chills were gone, and her coughing fits became less dramatic. Rose could wander the house—which she had found out that she was in a large house. It was dark, and most of the windows had been boarded up. From what Rose could tell, there was no electricity here, yet some features of the house looked as though there had been electricity at one time. Nonetheless, water had to be boiled on the stove so that they could have warm baths.

The warmest room was the den, where there was a fireplace. The dog seemed to have learned that long before Rose; he slept in front of the hearth, but when she sat on one of the two couches, he lept up to join her.

"Shoo." She scolded, but the dog only put his head in her lap. His whole body took up the rest of the couch's length.

He was rather ugly for a dog. His coat was grey and wiry. He looked very thin, but Rose was certain he was not starved. She had never seen a dog with such long legs before.

"You're so ugly." Rose tried to tell him, but it didn't bother him at all. His tail beat the couch's arm.

The hostess came in, bringing more tea to Rose. When she had been a child, she had to drink a disgusting syrup when she caught the flu. The syrup probably worked faster than this woman's tea remedy, yet there didn't seem to be any medicine in this house.

Taking the cup, Rose sipped at it. The tea tasted much better than the syrup of her childhood. The woman took a seat on the other couch.

"Does your dog have a name?" She asked.

Rose thought about it as she looked down at the dog. He seemed stuck on her, as if he had chosen her to be his owner. They hadn't spent much time together for that to be the case, but the dog didn't seem to mind. He reminded her of a cheap ship that no one would be interested in flying.

"Junker." Rose uttered before she realized what she was thinking.

The woman frowned. "That's not a very nice name."

"It's stuck now." Rose shrugged. "What's your name?"

"Fiona. You said that the sword upstairs belonged to your mother. She's gone?"

Rose nodded. "She died years ago."

The woman nodded, observing her skeptically. "Who was your mother?"

It took a long moment for Rose to think of a way to describe her mother. She might have had visions of her mother, both real and fake, but she didn't actually know her mother very well when she was alive. Rose had been too young to remember anything so well.

"I was only five when she died, so I can't say much about her." She chose her words carefully. Any time she had been truthful, it didn't end well for her. "I think she used to intimidate a lot of people back home, but she was just a normal mom for me."

Or at least, what Rose assumed a normal mom was. The more she thought about it, the more she started to remember bits and pieces. They didn't make much sense, but Fiona was obviously waiting for more.

"We left the city one day. I don't know what happened, but she said she was going to take me to her home." Rose concluded.

Fiona nodded wistfully, then stood and left the room. Rose wondered if she had done something that bothered her. Her story hadn't sounded too crazy; she had kept it vague enough.

Junker sighed. Rose frowned at him, then pet his head a couple of times. His tail began wagging again, but stopped when she stopped. She resumed curiously. She didn't know much about dogs.

A couple of minutes passed before Fiona returned with a small, dusty box. She took her seat and searched in the box, pulling out a small photograph. After examining it, and glancing at Rose, she nodded to herself and handed the photograph over to her. Rose took it carefully.

It was of a little blond-haired girl with a huge grin. She didn't know the significance of this girl, until she could vaguely remember those clothes as her own.

"Your mother did say you looked just like your father." Fiona mentioned as Rose handed the photograph back.

"You knew her?"

"We were best friends. I gave her that sword as a going-away present when she left here. This is the home she told you about." Fiona explained.

Rose thought that over for a moment. The Restoration Committee had been sure that nothing survived beyond the town. Perhaps Fiona was telling the truth, as Rose's mother had hinted that something survived, or perhaps this was all another illusion.

Fiona watched her. "The wizard said you would be confused when you woke up. Not that he explained very much to me, either."

"So this is where my mother came from?" Rose would go along with it for now, whether it was real or an illusion.

"The very house." Fiona smiled, the lines of her face becoming further defined. "Her family used to be big in these parts. I guess that's why she didn't tell anyone else that she was leaving. They wouldn't have let her."

"And they're all gone now?" It was a lot to take in, especially while still recovering from an illness.

"I'm pretty sure they are. Her sister married and moved away, and her mother had passed away shortly before she left. I don't think anyone who could have claim to this house survived the dark days. I had hoped your mother had—it was a slim chance, but she was tough." Fiona shrugged. "But she never did, and I didn't expect you to either."

It all still stumped Rose. Fiona only increased her confusion. The older woman realized this, and gave the box to her.

"Here. Maybe these will explain better than I can."

Rose took the box. Inside were letters and some photographs. Fiona gathered their now emptied teacups. Junker got off of the couch to stretch. She left the room first, followed shortly by the dog, since Rose wasn't doing anything interesting.

* * *

The letters were lengthy and far apart in terms of dates, having a lot of information about what happened since the last letter sent, and what life in the city was like. Each letter was held together by paperclips. A few photographs laid beneath them. Rose chose to look at those first.

They were mostly of her as an infant or child. She didn't think there was anything particularly special about them, except for the one photograph that included a man. He sat reading with young Rose. She now understood why Merlin said she looked like her father.

There was also a wedding picture of her parents, dated much earlier than any pictures of Rose. Her parents did look younger as well. Rose didn't look at it too long; she was getting impatient to start reading the letters.

Rose could see similarities between her own handwriting and her mother's: they were both rough, but easy to read. In the later letters, her mother's handwriting became finer. Rose preferred the rough but simple style. Each letter was signed by "Hannah".

Everything about the kingdom had seemed perfect to Rose when she was growing up, but her mother described something different in her first letters. She hadn't left her home with very much, but found an affordable place to stay. Her skills as a hunter weren't considered useful, and she didn't disclose what she did for work. Hannah wrote more about corrupt and outdated laws, as well as the lack of support for the kingdom's outer reaches, which she planned to change. She also criticized the monarchs of the time, whom Rose assumed were her grandparents. Her mother mentioned that it was difficult to get a meeting with them, especially as she was only one person representing countless country folk.

The next letter included how Rose's parents had met, and it wasn't what she had expected. Ansem was only a prince at the time, and Hannah loathed him as much as she did his parents. Her mother's perspective left out some details, but Rose gleaned that her father found Hannah to be amusing.

Over time, she softened, explaining that they shared the same views. She described having dinner with his parents, and narrowly avoiding disaster during it. Hannah could tell that the king and queen did not like her.

There was a large gap between that letter and the next. Hannah congratulated Fiona on her firstborn, then announced her own wedding to the same man she had hated at first. There was an ornate invitation included, but Hannah did not expect her friend to make it. She offered to send a picture, as the city had cameras. It wasn't something found beyond the city walls.

A lot of the details seemed boring and meaningless to Rose. She perused a couple of letters until her mother stated that she was pregnant. Rose assumed it was herself, although the year was too early. In the next letter, Hannah lamented that she had miscarried.

A couple of other miscarriages were scattered about other letters. In the meantime, the old king and queen died, Ansem and Hannah were finally formally crowned in their place, policies were changed, Ansem began gathering his inner circle for his own pursuits of knowledge, and other trivial castle things occurred. There were also another congratulations for Fiona, as she had another child.

Finally, there was Rose's birth announcement, and the accompanying letter describing her as a newborn. Her mother's description of what a cute baby she was disgusted her, and she moved on quickly.

The letters were sparse in between, making it seem as though Rose grew up fast. Instead of hiring a nanny, her parents tried to raise her themselves, like any other family would do in the kingdom, but more often enough Ansem's apprentices became involved as well. If Rose wasn't with her parents, she was with one of them. It seemed easily managed. Hannah admitted that they had a big family after all.

A few years went by, and little Rose caused much mischief. Ienzo's adoption came as a surprise for her mother, and even moreso for Rose. Hannah explained that she began acting out more—Rose even went as far as to try to go into town on her own. Peace was somehow made between them all, and Ienzo was added to the family. There were also a lot of complaints about how much Ansem focused on work; Rose began to realize that her parents' marriage hadn't been as perfect as she had thought.

Hannah mentioned that she wanted to bring Rose out of the city, because they would both enjoy it. Nothing more came of that.

In one of her last letters, she mentioned a man had fallen from the sky. He was strange in that though he was mostly unharmed from his fall, he couldn't remember anything. He also took up Ansem's whole attention, which caused Rose to act out again.

The very last letter wasn't much of a letter at all—more like a note. In hurried writing, Hannah told Fiona that she and Rose were coming home, and that no one could enter the city. Those two brief sentences were vague; they didn't explain what had happened.

In the time that Rose had taken to read the letters, Junker had come back into the room, gone outside, returned to her again, and then wandered the house. Fiona had come in at least once to stir the fire back up when it had gotten too low. Rose had been reading for much longer than she thought.

She looked over the few pictures of the box again. Aside from the two that included her parents, the pictures were of herself from newborn to four-years-old. Rose had to wonder if there were more pictures back in the castle. Maybe her mother really loved photographs, considering they weren't found in her home village.

Though reading wasn't vigorous, Rose found herself exhausted after taking all of it in. Fiona probably had more to tell her, but whatever medicine she had been mixing into the tea was wearing off. Rose put everything back into the box and went to her room to sleep.

* * *

She woke again when Junker wouldn't settle down on the bed. It wasn't big enough to hold both of them, and he was having difficulty finding just the right spot to lay down in.

"Dumb dog." Rose muttered, getting out of bed. She was hungry, and hoped it was time for dinner. Junker jumped off of the bed to follow her.

Descending the stairs, Rose could smell something cooking. She hadn't entered the kitchen before, but it was easy to find by the smell. Junker also led the way.

There was a larger dining room, but a small table had been set for dinner in the kitchen. Fiona had her back turned, cooking something on a very old stove. Junker went to her side, but she shooed him away. He gave her some space, then sat and waited for scraps.

"Is that dinner?" Rose asked, not yet taking a seat at the table. It smelled close to finished.

"Yes, though the time has passed. We're a bit more punctual out here than you are in the city." Fiona stated. Rose hadn't seen a single clock in this house.

"There's not much of a city left." She grumbled. She had expected there to be one. Yet when Rose thought about it, the messy state of Radiant Garden wasn't terrible. It made the place quieter—from what little time she had spent there.

Fiona finally brought the pan from the stove to the table, dividing overcooked meat between the two plates. It looked like rabbit to Rose. She took a seat at the table. Junker drew closer.

"As far as I knew, I thought this was the last bit of civilization left in the world." Fiona set the pan back on the stove, then took her own seat. "After the great big storm and the dark days, no one from this village could find others. A few people never made it back."

"What storm?" Rose hadn't waited for her host before she began to eat. She was glad to have a break from stew.

"Well, it was a storm. It came from the direction of the city. It came on before anyone could prepare for it. A lot of people died, and many places were torn apart. After that was the dark days. Monsters were everywhere, and food was not. A lot of people took shelter in this house because it was easier to live in a group. But then one day, the sky became brighter and the monsters lessened. So everyone else rebuilt their homes." Fiona explained, picking at her own food.

Rose didn't ask anything else for a long moment, focused more on eating. Junker sat patiently between them. She glanced around the kitchen, trying to imagine a time when it looked cleaner and brighter, a time when her mother was a child.

"How did you end up out here, anyway?" Fiona asked.

"I don't know." Rose shrugged, vaguely remembering her time buried in snow, Junker pestering her all the while.

"The wizard wouldn't say, either." Fiona mused quietly to herself, returning her attention to her food again.

It was a subject that Rose didn't want to talk about, least of all with her. She thought of a new subject quickly. "Did he say if he will return?"

"No. He said you'll figure it out, whatever he meant by that. If you're thinking about returning to the city, you'll have to wait a few weeks for the snow to melt. It's impossible to travel now." Fiona said. "Do you know how to chop wood?"

Rose nodded, although it wasn't quite the truth. She had very little experience of it from childhood; the boys were usually picked to chop wood at the orphanage. She had really wanted to handle the ax, though.

Fiona's question made it clear that while Rose would be staying put for awhile, she would not be a freeloader. After dinner, Fiona showed her how to boil water on the stove, then take it to the bath. Though the house had withstood a lot, there was enough damage that there was no running water.

Afterward, they settled in the den again. Fiona recalled Hannah's childhood adventures, which sounded similar to Rose's childhood in this world. She wasn't too different from her mother.

* * *

There wasn't much to do during winter. Now that her sickness was nearly gone, Rose helped around the house more. She was able to go outside without being too chilled, and spent a little time each day chopping wood. A boy around her age visited the house daily to deliver odds and ends to Fiona, but never stayed long because Rose had taken over chores meant for him.

The house stood separately from the rest of a village, which was down in a valley. Much of it was buried in snow and hard to see, but the people and animals that wandered proved that there was still life. As the snow began to melt, the village had even more life to it.

Fiona led Rose to the leader's house one day for a meeting among the households. His house was another large one, but located within the village. Once everyone was settled around the great table, Rose realized that most were looking at her. Their gazes were skeptical. The leader, an old man with scars on his left cheek, stood at the head of the table and cleared his throat.

"Girl, who are you?"

Fiona nudged Rose to attention, and prompted her to stand. "I'm Rose."

The older woman rose as well. "She's Hannah's daughter."

"How are you so sure? Hannah fell in the storm. How would a child of hers appear only now?" Another older woman spoke up, but remained seated. "She doesn't even look to be one of that clan."

"She arrived with this." Fiona opened her cloak and pulled the silver sword from her side. "My parting gift to Hannah before she left for the city. I remember my own work."

"Is that where you came from, then? The city?" The leader asked Rose directly. She glanced at Fiona, unsure of how to answer that. She didn't know how she ended up here.

"Yes." It was the last place she had been, at least. "It is being rebuilt."

Her announcement was met with mixed expressions. Some had hope, while others were more pessimistic about it.

"What good does that do us? Hannah snuck off to the city to get help, and the city creates a storm that almost killed the entire world." A man scoffed. "You should have known better than to travel during the winter. City folk aren't any use to us. I don't care who your mother was."

"That's enough." The leader spoke loudly. He turned to Rose again. "Is it all true? You are a lost daughter?"

"Yes. Hannah was my mother." She admitted. She had a suspicion that they would throw her out if they asked about her father.

"Then you are one of our own, despite the strange circumstances. The house of Ironwill still lives." He concluded. It should have made everyone happy, but no one acted so. Rose wasn't sure how to feel about it, either. She took her seat as Fiona took her own.

The meeting proceeded onto the topic of the upcoming spring. There was much planting and patching to be done. Rose didn't listen too much to it, waiting to leave so she could ask Fiona about what had just been decided.

Luckily, the meeting did not go on for too much longer. The villagers didn't seem to like to drag things out unnecessarily. Rose could appreciate that about them. It also sounded as though they decided on the same things every year, so there was no need to really talk about it.

She waited until they were out of the village and on the way back to the house before asking Fiona anything. "So what was the point of that?"

"Your appearance has everyone talking. Hunters don't usually find people buried in snow, especially alive. You had to give them some answers." The older woman huffed as they climbed the hill. "It would have been worse if they knew about the wizard."

"What happens now?"

"Just as Berach said: you're a lost daughter of the village. You'll be expected to act like it in order to get anyone to trust you."

"But I need to get back to the city."

"We won't keep you from that, but you have awhile before the path is ready."

They were now close enough to the house to alert Junker, who barked from within. He was sitting in front of the door, where they had left him. Once the door was open, he happily pounced on Rose, as if she had been gone much longer than she really had been. At least he had no expectations of her, even if he was annoying.

* * *

Rose and Junker often wandered the village when there was nothing to do. He eagerly greeted people, but they were apprehensive towards the strange dog, and even stranger girl. Some watched them, some more ignored them. Remembering what Fiona had said, Rose concluded that there probably hadn't been newcomers in years. Still, she preferred the villagers to the residents of Radiant Garden.

As much as there was to do around Fiona's house, Rose also spent time rereading her mother's letters, looking over the photographs, and napping. She seemed to dream every night now, although she didn't understand the images and sounds. It was common that she would wake in a panic, startling Junker, who insisted on sleeping on the bed with her. Despite Rose's attempts to make him go away, he was a good companion when the dreams were particularly bad.

Regardless, everyone else seemed to be brightening up as the snow melted. Rose had assumed that Fiona rarely left the house, and yet one day the older woman took another walk with her. She led the way to a paddock. Two saddled horses were inside: one was already mounted by a rider, and the other was being led by another boy.

"I don't know what you do in the city anymore, but the only way to get around fast here is by horse." Fiona explained. "Since you don't know how to ride, these two will teach you."

Rose approached the rider-less horse, as she assumed she was supposed to do. Fiona somehow convinced Junker to stay with her and watch. He might have clung to Rose, but he always listened to Fiona.

"Right foot in the stirrup." The boy instructed. He was the same one that always came to the house. His voice was slightly nasally, which fit his lankiness. "No, other foot."

The horse stayed still in an apathetic way as Rose learned how to get into the saddle. It picked its head up once she was situated, probably expecting someone else. She was jarred when it began moving.

"Don't sit so stiff. Move with the horse." The boy said as he led the horse around the paddock. The other horse and rider left through the gate. The horse found a small patch of grass to nibble on.

Rose vaguely remembered sitting on top of a horse a very long time ago, when she was very small. Her mother had sat behind her and told her the same thing.

She relaxed enough to let her hips sway with the horse's movements. They left the paddock and followed the other horse and rider.

Throughout the morning, Rose learned how to stop the horse and make it go faster, and then was let go to figure it out herself. They moved in spurts many times, but the other horse and rider always stuck around as they ventured outside of the village. He led the way back when it became late in the afternoon. By then, Rose was a confident rider, and also very sore.

* * *

When she could ride well enough on her own, Rose was taken on small hunting trips, which only got her out of the house more. The idea was that if she was going to make the long journey to the city, she had to know how to find food in a time when the plants were just coming back to life, and all other settlements had been decimated.

Whatever skills Rose had come with were useless here. These people didn't know much about other worlds or space ships. They did know much about this world, though—more than anyone in the city could tell Rose. When Fiona ran out of stories of Hannah (who had been a very skilled hunter and horse rider; Rose was proving to be neither), she told stories of legends and history. There were hardly any books to be found in the entire village, but some people had such stories memorized.

Though Junker was supposedly a hunting hound, he always scared away the prey, and had to be left behind with Fiona. Like with guns, Rose was not very good with bows and arrows. Often she barely missed a rabbit, but alerted it enough that it ran off. When she finally killed one, the boy named Oisin dug a small hole and had Rose dump the contents of a small satchel inside. She didn't understand why he buried dried meat and herbs in the ground, and like many times, he didn't explain himself.

Rose was also sloppy when it came to skinning. The already-small pelt of the rabbit was made even smaller, and she did not get much meat either. The remains were also buried somewhere out in the forest.

Over time, Rose improved slightly. She had once taken part in a group hunt for deer, which was done on horseback, but it was unsuccessful. Once she had proven herself somewhat useful, everyone seemed to relax around her, although they were still wary of accepting a stranger.

* * *

Eventually, after Rose had asked many times, Fiona finally acknowledged that the path would be clear and dry enough that she could travel to the city—or what was left of it, as Fiona often muttered under her breath. There were small green buds on all of the trees, and wildflowers were beginning to appear.

Fiona took her to the trail that led away from the village. Despite having been covered over winter, it still looked beaten. It was easy for Rose to see.

The older woman handed her a small sack full of food, and a very old piece of paper. "This should take you straight to the city, but the path could have changed after everything that's happened. Try to follow it the best you can."

Rose nodded, a bit disappointed that she could not be lent a horse. Fiona had insisted the village did not have enough horses for themselves. At least Junker would be accompanying Rose, even though he usually caused trouble.

"You can always come back. It's traditional that a house stays within the family, after all. We could all use an extra hand, especially this season." Fiona explained.

Her offer tempted Rose. During the dreary winter that she spent chopping wood, learning to ride horses, hunting, having mysterious dreams, random flashbacks, and moments of deja vu, Rose had mostly forgotten everything beyond the village. She suddenly remembered the traitorous apprentices living in her parents' castle, how Reed was probably still searching all of space for her because she had murdered the last friend he had left, and that Maleficent was still very much alive.

"But I can tell that you have some things to take care of." Fiona pat Rose on the shoulder. "It'd be best that you do. I'll keep the hearth warm for you."

With that, she turned and began walking slowly back to the house. She had once told Rose that she had been the village blacksmith, but years of the work caused a lot of back pain for her. For her entire stay, Rose hadn't socialized more than she had to with the people here, but now she felt pained as she watched Fiona walk away. She was probably the only person alive who could remember Hannah, and had had few other reasons to look after Rose for the winter.

Fiona was right, though. Rose had to go back to the city, if only to get answers from Merlin. He had just left her in the middle of no where, when he could have just whisked her back to the town with magic. Perhaps he was afraid of Rose now because of how much Maleficent had done to her.

After looking at the map, she began walking on the trail. The map made it look simple, but Fiona had warned her otherwise. She also did not plan to see any of the marked settlements.

Junker had watched Fiona leave them, then followed Rose. She wasn't sure why; he listened better to Fiona, and often stayed with her when he was too rambunctious for whatever activity Rose was doing. Regardless, he continued to follow her. Though she didn't want a dog, it was nice to have some company on the journey.

There wasn't anything unique about the forest trail. It went on and on. With the trees preparing to bloom, there were many birds chattering in their branches. They continued to do so for as far as Rose and Junker walked, never stopping.

When evening came, Rose began gathering sticks. Junker was not helpful in that he stole one stick and refused to give it back. Luckily, he was happy with just one stick. Rose set the rest up in a pile, but could not get it to light. So she gave up, relying on the borrowed traveling cloak and Junker to keep her warm through the night. Especially when it rained.

* * *

Nothing interesting happened for a couple of days. Rose began to notice the lack of monsters; there had been an occasional sighting and slaying around the village, but in the forest, there hadn't been any. The monsters always seemed attracted to where humans were. Rose must have been the only human between the village and town.

Junker couldn't provide much conversation. He spent most of the time doing something annoying, like getting in Rose's way, or darting off the path when he saw something vaguely interesting. Of course, the further they walked, the less clear the path was, so Junker's distractions only made it all more complicated.

He was particularly annoying one evening while Rose was trying to find dry sticks for a fire (which she still had not yet learned how to ignite with nothing). Junker yanked a stick from her hand, then proceeded to pounce around her with it. He let her take it back, but wouldn't leave her alone until she threw it. Rose threw it as far as she could. He ran deep into some brush.

After a few moments of silence, Rose had a dreadful feeling that Junker wasn't going to come back.

It was the same with everyone else. They all left. Merlin left Rose in the middle of no where, where she was out of the way and could be forgotten about again; the whole Restoration Committee probably agreed to that. Reed left Rose behind when she had been injured, and when that wasn't an option, he tried killing her. Wanda died before she could see her again, and Cliff and Trish had taken off. Brianne left Rose behind as fast as she could. Fiona left her to travel alone, only offering a place to stay as a formality. Even Rose's parents, in their own ways, had left.

Caught up in her thoughts, Rose wasn't aware that she had huddled against a tree. She hid her face in her knees while covering her ears with her hands; it didn't help keep anything out because everything was coming from within her. She only became aware of herself when she heard herself let out a few strangled sobs. She still didn't move from her position.

Junker had saved her from freezing to death. He had stuck to her side most of the time ever since. Rose had only called him stupid or dumb, and complained that he was in the way. He didn't deserve to have such a hateful name, but now it was stuck. Even dogs would get fed up of such poor treatment at some point. Rose didn't deserve Junker. She realized just how cruel she was.

Perhaps that was what Maleficent saw in her: a knack for cruelty kept deep down. How else could Rose have killed Brutus so easily? It had only been a quick swipe from her sword, which she continued to have at her side by some miraculous means. It was the same cruelty that helped Rose to attempt to kill her long-ago adopted brother. It was what drove her to hate and blame her father's apprentices for everything. Cruelty was a part of who Rose was. Someone evil like Maleficent would recognize the same evil in someone else.

It came as no surprise that so many people would abandon Rose, then. She wasn't dumb enough to think Maleficent was dead—even the witch had given up on her.

Rose didn't know how long she had sat there sobbing. She was suddenly interrupted when a snout touched her face, as hidden as it was, and licked her. Rose picked up her head to wipe away the disgusting drool, and some tears as well. Night had fallen, but the moon was full and bright. Junker sat next to Rose, waiting patiently for once.

She pushed herself forward to hug the dog, stroking his head. Junker was truly a stupid dog for coming back to her. Rose wasn't going to yell at him for it, though; it hadn't worked before, and she wanted him to stay. She cried some more. Junker shifted his feet uncomfortably, but didn't run off again.

When Rose settled down, she made sure to give him plenty of dried meat to eat, although there wasn't much food left for them. If walking had tired her out, then her emotions had exhausted her. She didn't bother to build a fire, resolving to just go to sleep where she was, and try to forget about the huge fit she had just gone into.


	9. Chapter 9

Running out of food, Rose tried hunting again. However, after an afternoon in which she could not sneak up on small woodland creatures and stab them, and Junker usually chased them away in his excitement, she decided it would be best to walk faster towards their destination.

There were plenty of rain showers, as was normal for spring, but Rose and Junker didn't stop. She only took off her traveling cloak when it became too wet, in hopes she wouldn't get sick again. There wasn't much shelter they could take, especially when they suddenly left the forest. She still could not start a fire. The dead mountains had nothing in which to kindle a fire with.

Rose rationed the food as best as she could, yet they soon ran out anyway. Luckily, they could see Radiant Garden from where they camped on the mountain. They only had to descend the mountain and cross the long blue canyon, passing Maleficent's tower as well. As tempted as Rose was to return there to loot it, she was drawn more towards the town, where there would be food and water.

Much of the day and evening was spent climbing down the mountain and crossing most of the canyon. As night fell, though, Rose knew they could not stop. She had caught glimpses of Heartless prowling about Maleficent's tower, and knew they would be roaming the canyon as well. So far, none were alerted to the presence of a human.

It was dark by the time Rose and Junker came to the end of the canyon, where it suddenly became steep. The town sat on top of an island. They both stumbled in the dark as they climbed up. There was a giant hole where the city's walls had crumbled away; maybe the main gate had belonged there once.

Just as they were about to reach the top, Rose heard a scuttling behind them. She tried to move faster to level ground. Junker barked, but followed after her. However, moving faster only meant stumbling more often.

They finally reached a cobblestone path, which led straight into the streets of town. Junker became excited by that, running forward to investigate everything. Rose turned around to find the small Heartless that had followed them up. She quickly took care of it.

Junker was still sniffing the area when Rose was finished with the Heartless. She led him to streets that had lamps. It was only her second time in the city; though winter had passed while she was away, it appeared that much construction was still completed in that time. Rose couldn't quite remember where Merlin's house was, but it was where she intended to stay for the night. She knew that he at least had a bed to spare.

Though they were both starved, Junker had less patience for it. At one point, he knocked over a trash can with a loud crash in the rather still night. Rose couldn't get him to leave it alone before he ate some piece of scrap. It settled him down enough to keep moving.

It wasn't long after that a man appeared in their path. Rose relaxed when she saw the big, dumb sword.

"I heard a Heartless was causing trouble in the area." Leon frowned moreso at the sight of Rose and her new dog. Junker lept forward to sniff him, just as he was doing with everything since they had entered town.

"Lots of things cause trouble." Rose scowled. "Where's Merlin's house?"

Leon lowered his sword, and tried his best to ignore Junker's attention. "This way."

Rose followed quickly after him. Though the house was probably close by, it felt like a long walk. Still, it was the final stretch of her long trek from the village. That helped her to move forward faster despite her hunger, thirst, and exhaustion.

"Where have you been?" Leon asked. Merlin must have not told the committee anything. Rose was thankful for it, actually.

"None of your business." She muttered.

Like everything else, the answer did not make him happy. Rose thought it was deserved; he didn't exactly share everything either.

They soon arrived at Merlin's. Junker dashed in after Leon, running immediately into Merlin across the room. The wizard was surprised at first, then amused.

"What a delightful fellow!" He managed to pet the dog's head in all of his excitement. He looked to the two accompanying people, and his smile diminished slightly. Rose narrowed her eyes at him.

"Leon, did you see to that Heartless?" Merlin asked innocently.

"That was them." The younger man answered, lacking enthusiasm.

Merlin chuckled, continuing to pet Junker. "I see. Let me make some tea."

It seemed that he wanted Leon to leave. He got the hint as Merlin turned to a small corner reserved as the kitchen. Junker followed him, eagerly waiting for food. Rose took a seat at the table in the center, hoping that Merlin wouldn't make this too long.

He only had two hands, so much of the china levitated to the table as it set itself. Merlin found something for Junker to eat and gave him water as well. They both came to join Rose at the table as the teapot poured itself into cups for them. A full plate of food came to sit in front of her, but Merlin had nothing for himself. As hungry as she was, though, Rose didn't dig in immediately. He was watching her for some reason.

"It must have been a long walk for you." Merlin spoke. "I'm glad to see that you still have your companion. He's very dedicated to you, you know."

"I guess so." She shrugged. She hadn't really seen it that way. Although since Junker had ran off and returned to her in the forest, she seldom thought of him as a nuisance.

"There's a great deal more than meets the eye with him." Merlin looked fondly at the dog. "What have you named him?"

"Junker." Her reply was met with a disapproving look.

Merlin changed the topic, dropping the frivolous chit-chat. "Eat, dear. You look terrible. Not as bad as when I last saw you, but still unwell."

Rose managed to not roll her eyes and began eating from her plate. It was so nice to have a full meal, rather than small rations. Junker had already finished his food. She pet his head with her free hand.

"You shouldn't have gone to Villain's Vale." Merlin did not scold her; he simply stated a fact. "It's clear now that Maleficent still resides there."

"And no one here is doing anything about it." Rose frowned. A look of caution passed on his face.

"It's no secret that Maleficent has targeted you." He replied. "She has marked you twice."

"I don't know what you're talking about." Rose grumbled stubbornly, although it was the truth. She didn't think she had been "marked" by anyone. The idea of it was unsettling.

"Maybe not. They are small. That worries me the most." Merlin pointed to Rose's left cheek. She touched it, barely feeling the small oval indent in the skin. "It's a fairy's kiss. It's much worse than it sounds."

Rose could not recall ever meeting a fairy. "What does it mean?"

"Well, it means that Maleficent has chosen you." Merlin worded carefully.

"Will you just tell me what's going on already?" Rose snapped, her voice louder than she intended. She also didn't mean to snap; it had just come out too quick to hold back.

The wizard was just as surprised as she was by herself. He cleared his throat and sat forward in his chair. "Traditionally, a fairy's kiss has meant early death. I believe Maleficent had slightly different intentions for you. I don't know what happened when she captured you."

His last words indicated that he wanted Rose to explain it—as if she knew either. None of it made sense to her. Yet if she tried, Merlin might explain more himself.

"We were someplace, and I beat her." She said, leaving the parts about her mother and the memories out. She didn't want to share them with anyone.

"You were both in your heart." Merlin suddenly seemed to know more than Rose did about what happened to her. "Maleficent wanted to take it for herself, but you cast her out. You were both gone for some time. I consulted Master Yen Sid, but even he could not see where you had gone for the couple of months. Maleficent returned much sooner than you, but she was weak at first. Now she seems preoccupied with something else."

"She's looking for a black box." It was Rose's turn to show that she knew more than she let on. "I saw it when we were fighting. She wants it bad."

Merlin nodded, relaxing in his chair. Sitting, Junker could still look over the table. He was tired, and laid his front legs and his head on Rose's lap. She continued to pet him, her plate and cup empty.

"I don't know anything about a black box, but it sounds like something Master Yen Sid would be interested in as well." The wizard mused. "You should get some rest. The guest bedroom is still available."

Rose wouldn't be dismissed so easily. "Why didn't you just bring me back when you found me?"

"You were still weak from your battle. You were also very sick. Moving you, even by magic, would have been too dangerous." Merlin explained absentmindedly. "You needed the time away. Now you need to rest after such a long journey."

Moving her legs, Rose woke Junker up. He got off of her lap with a huff and followed her to the guest bedroom. Junker jumped on the bed and settled down first. Rose had to find a comfortable position with what space he left for her.

* * *

The day was well underway when Rose woke again. She still remembered Merlin's words from the night before, and they did not put her in a better mood.

But he had also said that Rose had defeated Maleficent. That was something to take pride in. The witch wasn't even looking for her—as if she gave up on that endeavor and moved on to other things. The thought soured her mood: she had been cast aside yet again. Despite the defeat, Maleficent still got away with it. It didn't sound as though it had an effect on her now. It wasn't fair.

If she desired a specific box so much, then Rose had to find it before she could. Why should Maleficent have anything she wanted when Rose didn't?

Leaving the bedroom, Rose only found Yuffie hanging around the house. She assumed the younger girl wouldn't have a problem if she helped herself to the kitchen. As with everyone else, Junker showed a lot of interest in the new person. Yuffie responded gleefully, talking stupidly to him.

"Where'd you get such a cool dog?" She asked when Rose offered food to Junker. He quickly began eating it, forgetting about Yuffie for a moment.

"He found me and hasn't left me alone since." Rose didn't understand how someone could be so energetic all the time.

"Where did you go? We all kinda thought you died when we found where your ship crashed."

"What?" With everything else that had happened, Rose had forgotten about her ship. Although it was a stolen shuttle, it had really begun to feel like hers. The last she had seen it, it was hovering outside of the window of Maleficent's library. That had been a few months ago.

"Yeah! We all thought you died, but then no one could find a body. Merlin said you were okay. I don't know how he knew, but he's usually like that." Yuffie went on.

"What about my ship?" Rose pressed for more important information.

"Well, Cid managed to drag what he could back to his shop. He said something about it being a shame that it happened. I think he's rebuilding it."

Rose went for the door. "Okay."

She didn't remember the way to Cid's shop clearly, but she didn't want Yuffie to guide her. Junker followed her out of Merlin's house. Rose hadn't been back for a day and she already wanted space from everyone else. Cid, however, was an exception.

There were more people around in the daylight for Junker to be distracted by, but he also had to keep up with Rose. She began to notice the lack of other dogs, but didn't really care. She focused on finding a large building that would house gummi ships. They would be more common in this world now. That was one change Rose liked.

After some time, she found it. The building was wide open, showing Cid's large ship inside. In the port next to it was a smaller ship, which Cid was working on as Rose approached. Junker barked, announcing their entrance as he bounded forward to get in the way.

"Shoo!" Cid waved at the dog, his other hand deep in a panel on the side of the ship. Rose looked over his shoulder to see what he was doing.

"Is it nearly done?" She asked, feeling impatient. It had been so long since she had flown her ship.

Cid turned at the sound of her voice. His surprise was evident, but rather than ask and chatter about her situation, he returned straight to work. "Not quite. I still need to put a few parts in to get her running again. I suppose this means I have to give her back when I finish."

"Yes." Rose stated coldly. She hadn't died, after all. She liked Cid because he didn't talk about stupid things, but she knew he would be one to take her ship if she was gone.

"Well I'm not going to finish any faster if you're breathing down my neck the whole time." Cid scolded. Rose ignored him and went around to enter the ship.

It was bare. Some spots looked like the original ship, although they had splotches of soot on them. Some spots looked like brand new paneling. Much of the controls were new, as was the pilot's chair. A lot of the ship had been lost to fire.

Rose exited the ship, Junker following close behind like always. She glanced over at Cid's work bench, and him working in the panel. She crossed the bay to pick up a part from the bench and brought it back to the ship.

"I'll put this in. It's my ship." She showed the part to Cid. He didn't look away from his work.

"Do you even know what it is?"

"Yes." She quipped. She had spent a lot of time learning these things from Brutus.

Without another word from Cid, Rose helped to rebuild her ship. It was already nearly complete. Neither of them talked much while working. He took smoke breaks, but she continued to put parts in and repair what needed repairing. Junker wandered around, but always stayed close.

Cid would not admit it, but the work went faster with two people. However, he decided to quit before they were done, and wasn't going to leave Rose alone in the ship hangar.

She and Junker roamed the streets as the sky became darker. She wasn't ready to go back to Merlin's yet, where everyone would probably be. They would have questions and assumptions that Rose didn't want to hear. She did not have much desire to see Aerith yet, either.

In the streets, no one really paid attention to Rose. Perhaps they had not realized that she had disappeared for a long time. She didn't mind because they left her alone. Some were startled by Junker, and some were delighted. He continued to follow her, though, never becoming too distracted.

The changes weren't terrible. They made little difference to Rose. So what if some fountains had been moved or just destroyed? Currently, none of them ran with water yet. Perhaps some streets were moved to make life in the kingdom a little easier. Rose wasn't exactly educated in urban planning.

Still, there were some things she had seen on other worlds that could be useful in this one. Likewise, this world still needed things that could not be found within its atmosphere. Maybe Rose would find a way to contribute to the restoration, but she really wanted to go find that black box (which could be any black box, for all she knew).

The town became quieter at night, and she liked that. She came by the flowerbeds, where all of the autumn's flowers were now replaced by small buds in the soil. Rose urged Junker to not dig in the dirt. He did not bother because he soon charged at something.

Rose looked up to see that they were not the only occupants of the square. A guard—the freakishly tall one that she had fled from a few months ago—looked just as surprised to see someone else. Junker eagerly sniffed at him, and was petted in return.

Approaching, Rose tried calling Junker back to her. Obviously by his wagging tail, he only meant to be friendly. Regardless, he shouldn't just run into people like that. The guard didn't seem to mind.

Junker soon returned to Rose to sniff at her. She pat his head, then faced the very tall man, whose name she could not remember.

If he recalled her little stunt, he didn't show it. "I see you have a dog now."

"Yeah." Rose shrugged. Neither of them wanted to be in this moment.

"What do you call him?" He gave Junker a couple of strokes when the dog approached him again.

"Junker." She scowled as she expected a disapproving look. The large guard didn't seem to mind that, either.

A long, awkward moment passed as neither had anything to say to the other. Rose wanted to ask about the others, especially to find out who else had survived. But did she care? She definitely didn't want to. Rose didn't want to feel the need to go out of her way and get to know them again. It was better this way.

She hated that she couldn't tell what the guard was thinking while he was so quiet. He was taller than she remembered. She vaguely recalled there being something special about him. Yet he wasn't stopping her from doing anything.

When the silence became too overwhelming, Rose turned and began walking away. Then the very tall guard spoke up. "Where are you going?"

"None of your business." She scowled over her shoulder.

"Rosemary." The guard warned.

"Aelus." Rose countered, suddenly remembering his name. She continued to walk away, calling Junker after her. She didn't remember the apprentices being so weird, and she now understood why they weren't often seen during daylight hours. They were annoying.

She returned to Merlin's long after everyone else had eaten dinner. She was able to eat alone, albeit with Junker at her side. Without saying much to anyone, Rose went to bed, determined to wake early and finish the work on her ship.

* * *

Once the ship was finished, which took all morning, there was the matter of restocking it. Much of Rose's personal effects had been burned in the fire. She needed a new mattress, blankets, storage crates, and maps. Junker would need supplies of his own, too. Luckily, the star shard and Rose's duffel bag had been in a safe spot away from fire.

However, Radiant Garden didn't have many of the supplies that Rose needed. They didn't have maps of their own land, much less maps of the stars. There also weren't mattresses and blankets to spare. Rose couldn't recall which worlds were closest to this one, and how long it would take to reach them. It had been a very long time since she had left the ground.

In a last ditch effort, Rose went to the castle in search for star charts. It would at least be something. There was probably many other supplies as well—four men did not need a lot of things, so whatever was left could be taken by anyone. In a way, she had a right to those things.

Junker happily explored the castle alongside Rose, and for awhile they did not run into anyone. The entire way was unfamiliar to her. The only place that had been familiar was her father's study; she had never been allowed in the labs, and the halls were still in such a mess that they were different. It had also been over a decade since Rose had lived in the castle, and she hardly remembered her way around.

She wasn't sure how to feel about her old home. Her memories as a five-year-old were blurry and fading. She couldn't remember the castle in its glory. It had probably been full of people and events back then. Now, it was very quiet. Rose liked it this way.

From outside, she had seen that the observatory was gone. At least, there was no dome nor telescope to be seen from town. So she searched for the library. She could remember that that had been large and full of all kinds of books. It had to have some books on stars and star charts, too.

It took quite awhile to find the library. Not only did Rose not know her way around, but sometimes the path was blocked and she had to go a different route. Sometimes she thought she found it, only to realize that the room had a different purpose that happened to need a few books around. Her path went up a few floors. She did not consider that the library would not be on such a high floor, and so she continued on her path.

Rose was curious to see what had survived the years. She was not as curious as Junker, who went from room to room, sniffing everything over. She passed on at a steady pace, briefly wondering what the rooms used to be. They were in such disrepair and neglect that it was difficult to determine.

One such room was easy to identify. Despite the dust, cobwebs, and occasional littering of rodents, Rose could still recognize the floral patterned blanket on the child's bed. The large lumpy pile in the corner of the room turned out to be a bunch of stuffed animals, albeit some were lacking limbs or had holes chewed through them. A book laid perfectly unharmed on one of the nightstands next to the bed, most likely where her mother had placed it while wishing her a good night's sleep.

Unable to step over the threshold, Rose tried to remember the last night she had been in her room, but she couldn't. It must have seemed so normal to her. She could not even remember leaving—something must have happened that caused her mother to whisk her away to the wilderness. If only Rose's mother was still alive to explain it.

It wasn't fair. Her mother was dead—had been for years, despite Rose's hopes. Her father was another story: everyone assumed he was dead, but her mother had said otherwise. Even so, it was unlikely he would ever return home. Rose wasn't sure she wanted him to. She wasn't sure that she even wanted to stay and call this place home. It felt as though that right had been taken away from her.

After everything, it was the traitors' home now. They hadn't wasted any time in moving back in and making some places in the castle livable. Meanwhile, Rose was stuck in Merlin's house. She didn't like anyone there.

Junker had entered the room like it was any other. He dug into the pile of stuffed animals, but failed to stir up any rats. Rose turned abruptly for the stairs, calling him. He followed after a moment more, covered in dust.

She didn't want to be in the castle anymore. It had been a bad idea. She hated this place. Of course, it wasn't until Rose had given up and was leaving that she finally found the large room filled with shelves of books.

All in all, the library looked like it had endured everything well. Most of the many book cases were still standing, but they all had gaps in their shelves, where books had either fallen or been stolen. Other than that, it appeared that the library had been left alone.

It was going to take a long time to search through them all—longer than Rose wanted to spend. Maleficent already had a head start in finding that black box. Perhaps she already had, but Rose had to keep trying to ruin her plan anyway.

She had no other way of searching the shelves than by browsing a few titles and moving on. It was a quiet, hidden place that helped her calm down from the fit she almost had. Regardless, it was a very slow process that quickly bored Junker. He wandered off, which wasn't any problem. Rose was sure she could find him when she was ready to leave.

A few minutes passed in peace; it ended when Junker barked, and something fell with a loud thud. Rolling her eyes, Rose went towards the sound. She found her dog laying on top of the younger apprentice—her adopted brother.

"Junker, no." Rose approached and pulled the dog off of the boy. Junker thankfully got off, looking to her for approval. She pat his head, but her attention was on the boy.

He was shocked to see them. Once the weight of the dog was off of him, he sat up. "So this is Junker."

He didn't appear to be a fan of dogs. Junker really liked him, though. Rose kept him back until the boy stood up, then she did the same. He was next to a desk that was cluttered with books and papers. He was searching for something, too.

"It's a surprise to see you here." The boy brushed himself off, assuming that Junker had gotten dirt on his white coat. He was wary of them both. "Do you need something?"

Rose ignored the question for the moment, noting how flighty the boy looked. "I'm sorry for trying to hurt you before."

It almost hurt her to apologize to him, and it came out strained. It may have been thirteen years or more, but Rose suddenly felt the childhood grudges she had had towards him. He—whatever his name was—seemed to not have any towards her. It was odd to see him all grown up, especially because Aelus seemed to have not aged at all, but it must have been odd for him to see Rose grown up as well.

"Oh," The boy was surprised. "It's alright. I suppose it was all just a misunderstanding. We didn't expect to see anyone else in the castle. Especially since we thought you were dead."

"I've heard." Rose didn't remember him ever being so chatty before. As a child, the boy had been almost mute. She decided to end this awkward conversation and get to the point. "Have you seen any star charts lying around?"

The boy blinked at the sudden question. "No. Those would be in the observatory-"

"And it's gone now. The library is the next best place to look."

"I see. I'll keep that in mind while I'm reading."

"Reading for what?" Rose glanced at the books and papers on the desk.

"Well, to understand why things have happened they way they have, and hopefully to bring back others who are inhabiting Sora's heart. I've been looking over Ansem the Wise's research and data for answers." He explained. She narrowed her eyes at him. It sounded like something that should be left alone. He ignored the look, moving on. "What do you need the star charts for?"

"For flying. I'm leaving as soon as I have some." Then she wouldn't have to speak to the apprentices again, most likely.

The boy frowned. "For how long? I would think you'd spend more time here after being away for years."

"Don't pry." Rose's tone was especially dry. He didn't really want her to stay.

"I'm sorry. I hope we can put our troubled childhoods behind us and start over."

She shrugged. "Maybe." She didn't exactly know what had happened to him through the years, but she understood what it was like to be an orphan. Through their own hardships, he came out as the better person. Rose hated him for it. "I don't remember much, or even your name."

"Ienzo." The boy answered.

"Right. I have to look for those charts."

"Rose, it isn't safe to travel." Ienzo frowned. "Xehanort is still after Kingdom Hearts. Braig—he goes by Xigbar now—is still with him. Aeleus, Dilan, Even and myself were recompleted, but Even has disappeared. He may still be working with Xehanort. He became much more dangerous as a Nobody."

She crossed her arms and snorted. "None of you ever bothered me before. I'm sure that's one thing that hasn't changed. What makes this place any safer than space?"

There was a pause between them. Rose knew she was right. After a moment, Ienzo conceded.

"I'm sorry if I overstepped any boundaries. Please let us know if you need anything." His offer was strange; Rose wasn't sure he was being honest about it. If he was, then perhaps the apprentices felt some guilt.

"Junker, come." She ordered, walking away from the boy and his books. Their sudden departure startled Ienzo, but he did not protest it. She did not want to bond with him.

So Rose resumed searching the shelves, and having no luck. Junker began wandering again, but did not cause more problems or awkward encounters. The library was a very boring place for him, and when he began chewing on some beaten furniture, Rose didn't stop him. What difference did it really make? When (and if) the castle was ever restored, the library's furniture would be replaced.

It was late when she finally found anything to do with stars, in a section far back on the library's first floor. Rose carelessly pulled books off of the shelves and skimmed through them. She put them back roughly, muddling their order. A couple of the books did have star charts. Once she had them, she left the library. Junker followed close behind, whining occasionally because he was hungry.

Rose had assumed she could just take the books, considering so many had been lost to thieves already. Yet it was not long after she left the library that she heard footsteps behind her. She hadn't seen Ienzo when she had left the library, but didn't really care about where he had gone off to. He hesitated when Junker approached him. Rose called for the dog to return to her side.

"Where are you going with those?" Ienzo asked innocently.

"Wherever they take me." She answered slyly. Some of the charts were of distant stars that she hadn't heard of yet. They could be interesting places. "I'll bring them back later." When she had proper maps.

"In one piece, I hope?"

"Maybe."

The answer wasn't what Ienzo wanted to hear, but he moved on. He pulled a small device from his pocket and offered it to Rose. She only looked at it.

"It's a cell phone. It's already programmed with mine, Dilan's, and Aeleus's numbers, so you can call if you need anything." He explained, then went further when he assumed she was clueless. "It's a communication device-"

"I know what a cell phone is." She cut him off. She had seen both phones and communicators, but Reed had always been too cheap to buy some for the crew, and she never had much need for them. "I'll be fine. The ship has a radio that I can use to contact the committee if I need to."

"Just please take it. I want to make peace between us."

"I think we'd have more peace if we didn't talk."

Ienzo slightly frowned. "Maybe so, and I can assure you that neither one of us will call you unless it's very important. I suspect that we can help somehow, whatever you're planning to do."

He wasn't going to go away until Rose gave him what he wanted. She took the odd-shaped device and stuffed it into her pocket. "Fine."

"All of the phones have quite a bit of range, but they're all still prototypes." He added, "Well, until next time, then?"

"Yeah. Sure." She didn't plan to visit the castle the next time she stopped in the world, unless she had no other choice.

Just as she had in the library, Rose abruptly took her leave. It bothered Ienzo less this time, who did likewise. She was sure that her phone would end up in some corner of the ship, unused.

Once out of the castle, she went straight for Cid's ship shop. At this hour, though, he had the place locked up. Rose had no other choice but to return to Merlin's for one last night.

By the time she arrived, she had already missed dinner and the Committee was scattered about in their own activities. Rose preferred it that way. She helped herself to food and fed Junker. She also thought to give him a bath before they would leave the next day. He goofed around the whole time, getting the bathroom and Rose soaked. Yet it was done, and they were nearly ready to leave the world.

* * *

Rose did not mention to the Committee that she intended to leave that day as they all gathered for breakfast. Only Leon and Aerith seemed disappointed that Rose did not help in their restoration efforts. She and Leon had never talked much before, and lately she hadn't spoken with Aerith, either.

To Cid's annoyance, Rose followed him to his shop. Once she got to her ship, she dropped off the books and went to gather the last supplies she could in this world, which was mostly just food.

It was late in the morning when she was finishing her last trip to the shops. Merlin was waiting by her ship, frowning. She had never intended to ask for his permission to leave.

"I see you're ready to go." He spoke as Rose walked past him and into the ship. She returned to him once she put down the last of the supplies.

"Yep."

"Well, if you must, then you should also visit Master Yen Sid." Merlin advised.

Rose was surprised that he was not arguing against her going. "Another wizard?"

"Yes, although his tower is not easy to find." He warned. "The easiest way to get there is through Twilight Town. From there, you can reach it by train. He will want to know about the black box Maleficent is after."

"Alright." Rose said. Perhaps Yen Sid would know more about it than she did. She didn't look forward to dealing with another wizard, though. He might tell her to return home.

"Do make sure to visit once in awhile. We'd all like to see that you're still alive. Perhaps the kingdom will look much better when you come again." Merlin smiled.

"I'll fly by." Rose mentioned, remembering that the ship's radio wouldn't work from far away. She wouldn't have to land in the world if she didn't want to. She was looking forward to some space from it.

His smile lessened. "Well, I won't hold you any longer. Take care."

He walked away after patting Junker on the head one more time. The dog's tail slowed in its wagging, but he stayed by Rose's side. She led the way into the ship.

Once in the pilot seat, the take-off procedure came naturally to Rose, as if she hadn't been grounded for so long. In no time, the ship was in the air and out of the hangar.

The sudden jolt as the ship ascended caused Junker to whine. When the ship was halfway between the ground and the mesosphere, he bounded to her and forced himself into her lap. She nearly lost hold over the controls, and the ship jerked in its flight path.

"Move." Rose complained. Despite her efforts to shove him off of her lap, he stayed where he was. She gave up, doing her best to steer the ship as they left the atmosphere.

Leaving Junker behind still was not an option to her, yet the journey was going to be much longer than Rose expected.


	10. Chapter 10

It wasn't long before Rose landed the ship again in another world for more supplies. Junker took some coaxing before he would get off of her lap, but he was perfectly fine once he realized the ship was on solid ground. She pat him a few times for his troubles.

Twilight Town had much more people and activity than Radiant Garden did. It was one of those places that would have a leash law in effect, so for the time being, Junker had to stay in the ship. He didn't understand the command to stay, but Rose managed to hold him back as she exited the ship through the hull door.

There was a lot to buy, and she didn't have much money left. Although she only wanted to search for the mysterious box, Rose knew she would have to do jobs on the side. Junker wasted enough time for her by being himself.

She made two trips to the ship with supplies. Once everything was situated the way Rose liked, she took Junker out on a leash. He had sat still as she put the collar on, but soon learned what it was meant for as he tugged every which way once they were outside. He did not like to be restrained. She couldn't blame him.

They walked all about town, giving the dog plenty of time to stretch his legs and get over the fright of flying. They climbed the giant hill to the train station. Rose remembered Merlin's vague directions to get to Yen Sid's tower by train. He would be yet another old wizard making her sit down and have tea, all while saying vague things about her predicament. He would probably keep her captive in that tower, alluding to some danger that wasn't actually that bad. She resolved to visit once she had the black box. Then she wouldn't arrive empty-handed.

Once Junker seemed to tire, Rose took him back to the ship. He was wary when entering, so she coaxed him with food. She had some herself, although she could have gotten a warm meal at a number of restaurants in the town. Even if Junker was tired, he probably wouldn't behave well in a place with so much food, especially during dinner hour.

Even after they ate, Rose did not move to fly the ship. She thought it would help Junker to stay in it for the night, then leave in the morning. So she took one of the "borrowed" books and marked the world in the star chart within the pages. Rose then mulled over what other world to check next. It didn't help that none of them were labeled.

Junker was soon asleep on her new mattress. She hadn't bothered to buy him his own bed because she knew he wouldn't use it. Eventually Rose put the book aside and did her best to find a comfortable position on what remaining space there was of the mattress.

* * *

Even after breakfast and a walk, as well as a slow ascension into space for the ship, Junker was still terrified when the ship left ground. Rose had placed a box into her lap as a way to keep him off, but frequently pet him as he sat by her side. She supposed it could be worse: Junker could become sick when flying.

The flight did not last long before Rose landed in another world, one that was more connected to others. Once she had the ship on the ground, she comforted Junker some more, though she did tell him he was a big baby. He didn't seem to mind.

However he didn't like it when Rose left him in the ship. While the world had higher technology, it wasn't so dog-friendly. At least, she hadn't seen any dogs around. She didn't need the distraction of Junker while she made a few calls. Surely he could be left alone in the ship.

Of the contacts that answered Rose's calls, three had black boxes, but they didn't look like the one she was seeking. Only one contact had a job for her to do; they all seemed surprised to hear from her again, as well as aloof to her requests. They were all disappointed to hear that her crew had disbanded. Rose had been gone longer than she thought, and it angered quite a few people.

A job was going to waste time, but she needed the money. After buying some star charts and maps, she returned to the ship. Rose felt as though she was far behind Maleficent's progress.

Junker was eager to go on a walk when she returned. She later learned that he had chewed on the armrest of her chair, but didn't do anything about it.

* * *

The job seemed easy enough. Studies had been done on the suits of armor Rose and the men had brought to the curator so long ago, and he wanted more. She hadn't asked many questions, assuming she would be given more details when the job was done. She just wondered what she would do with Junker while she was working.

The flight was a long one, giving the dog plenty of time to get used to flying. Rose assumed he was improving when he resigned to hide his head under a blanket on her bed. He gave an occasional huff of boredom.

On the way to the wasteland, she took a detour. Retrieving more suits of armor would take a day at most. Her ship was still full up on supplies to last awhile, and as Rose was the only one who knew where the wasteland was, there was nothing to worry about. She could spend a little time searching for a lead on the black box.

Since her other contacts did not know anything of it, she thought to try a small world that served as a smugglers' haven. Respectable people had never heard of such a box, but perhaps a world full of gossipers and black market traders would know more. Reed had brought his crew to this place time and time again for work, but Rose had never wandered it on her own. She hoped no one would recognize her.

Landing the ship away from most others, Rose once again put the leash on Junker. He may have disliked it, but it made her more secure about taking him around these streets. Dog meat had some value here.

She took some time to simply walk around, stretching both her and Junker's legs out from the flight. He tugged every which way at first, then settled as they began approaching busier streets.

Plenty of people cast wary glances at them, but no one stopped them. The dog was oblivious to any scrutiny; he sniffed at many people, and a few shooed him away. Rose pulled him away from the vagrants that called for his attention. On her own now, she realized just how scummy the place was. It didn't seem half so bad before, aside from all the smuggling.

She came across a few job boards, yet none of them had anything about a black box. She checked in with the tavern master, who served as the haven's top gossip. Though he was interested, he knew nothing. He then shooed her and her dog out, having a no dog policy. Junker had already eaten plenty of table scraps off of the floor.

Even a world full of thieves didn't know anything about a mythical black box. Rose frowned as she walked through the streets again. She had wasted time here. The only thing she had gained was a reminder as to why she didn't come to this world, and why she had convinced Reed to aim higher.

The world also reminded her about the whole crew. Yet they were all gone, in one way or another. Those days seemed like they had taken place ages ago. After everything, Rose was happy that they were over.

A vagabond shuffling ahead of her began singing. She supposed it was singing; the voice was slurred from drink, thus the tune was broken and nonsensical. She walked by quickly, not thinking anything of him. Even Junker seemed to ignore him. Thankfully, he stopped singing.

In the next moment, though, the vagabond lurched forward and grabbed Rose by the arm. She twisted around to pull her arm free, but he had a surprisingly strong grip. She caught a glimpse of his face through his matted, greasy hair. For a second, she froze.

Reed had changed a lot since she had seen him last. Though he had always smelt of alcohol, it was now mixed with bile and sweat. His clothes were stained, and too big on him. He hadn't been a very big man before, but now he was even less so. His face seemed to sag more than it had before. His skin had a yellowish look to it.

"You... ruined everything!" It seemed to be what Reed said through slurred words. He suddenly threw Rose backwards. She stumbled as he fumbled with something in his pocket. She didn't realize he had pulled out a gun until he fired it in her general direction.

The bullet missed by a long shot, but she still ducked. The street cleared out as many ran from the fight. Junker lowered himself to the ground and barked. Reed continued to hold up his gun unsteadily and sway. He squinted, as though he was having difficulty seeing Rose and Junker.

"Shuddup." He slurred out, aiming his gun towards the dog and fired. He completely missed, but Junker pulled free from her and ran off anyway.

Rose suddenly got over her shock and disgust towards Reed, pulling out her sword and charging at the drunk. He couldn't pull the hammer back on his revolver before she was on him. He didn't try to block with his other hand as she sliced his fist. The gun fell onto the cobblestone. Reed grabbed her neck. She dropped her sword to pry his hand away with her own. Though he had lost so much weight, he was still strong.

He tried to say something more, but couldn't get the words out. His head then jerked forward and his grip relaxed. Reed fell aside, revealing a much younger man behind him, the stock of his gun still poised where it had impacted the skull.

"Oh, it's you." He lowered the rifle to his side at the sight of Rose, then glanced at Reed, who laid unconscious between them. The younger pirate smoothed his light brown hair as tall white ears approached from behind him. "This scene makes a lot more sense now."

"He started it." Rose mentioned, kneeling down to pick up her sword. She looked around for a sign of Junker as others returned to the street. He was nowhere to be seen, and it made her nervous.

"That's not what he has been telling everyone. Though lucky for you, few believe him." The other man raised a brow at her. She didn't see a reason to defend herself, or confess anything.

"Have you seen a dog?" Rose asked. No sooner had she spoken did the tall viera behind the pirate hiss. Junker had snuck up to greet her, but was not appreciated. He returned to Rose's side. She quickly grabbed his leash again.

"A girl and a dog in space." The man smirked. "Is this how you're striking it out on your own?"

"It's none of your business what I'm doing, Balthier." Rose scowled. Junker sniffed at him, but he paid no attention to him.

Balthier shrugged. "Perhaps, but I heard that you're after quite the valuable treasure."

"Maybe. It's worth something to someone." She reasoned, although she didn't think it would be a good idea to explain much.

"What is it?"

"A black box. I don't really know."

"Well, I see you're off to a great start." He stated dubiously. "And I was told you would make a decent pirate if Reed wasn't smothering you."

The said drunk groaned as he began to wake.

"As you can see here, this is where he ended up. Whatever happened, he lost everything one way or another." Balthier explained without being prompted. "It's a sad way to go."

Rose frowned. He was becoming annoying. "Whatever."

She had blamed herself for a lot of what had happened at some point, but knew that it was all mostly Reed's fault. He was an example of the wrong person to become. Even so, she was beginning to feel sorry for him. But it wasn't something she would get into in the middle of the street with a senior smuggler and his partner. Rose wanted to leave.

"I have places to be." She turned her heel and walked away, pulling Junker along. All of the excitement had thankfully tired him. He didn't tug on the leash so much on the way back to the ship.

* * *

Junker stayed next to Rose for the remainder of the journey. At one point, she stopped to sleep and eat, which he greatly appreciated.

For awhile, Rose pitied, but found it difficult to mourn for Reed; he had never been a good man. He may have taught her how to fly ships, and she may have wronged him since first joining his crew, but he changed a lot after he fired her. Rose had been too absorbed in her own problems to notice until it was too late. She even added to the problem by killing Brutus. She hadn't mourned for him the way she should have, either. The only difference was that Reed's predicament was expected.

With Reed inhibited, it meant that Rose could fly freely again, without fear of being hunted down by her old captain. She might have deserved it, but since Maleficent had been involved, Rose didn't think she was all to blame. It wasn't something she could explain to anyone, though.

It had been easy to forget about Reed and Brutus while she had been at home—just as it was now easy to forget all her troubles about Maleficent while traveling between worlds.

Despite Junker's fear of flying, he slept just fine while in space. Rose did not have such luck, but she slept enough. Feeding Junker once again, she resumed flying to the wasteland world.

It looked exactly as she had last seen it. Though many suits of armor had been stolen before, the battlefield looked untouched. It wasn't like there was anyone around to notice if even more went missing—except for the armored man, but he hadn't done anything before about it.

There weren't any trees or other features in the canyon, making it easy to keep an eye on Junker as he wandered, investigating with his nose. Still, if he went too far, Rose called him back to her.

She picked out the best-looking suits of armor that she came across, and did her best to be gentle as she took them to the ship and put them all into a single crate. After a couple of trips back and forth, Rose felt confident that this job would go smoothly.

After the third deposit in the ship, though, she couldn't see Junker. She sighed and began searching for him. She worried that another sandstorm would pick up. Maybe it was why he had disappeared.

Rose listened for Junker more than she called for him. She began walking in one direction, although he could have gone the other way. She briefly wondered if Junker would run into the armored man, but if he had already, he would have made a lot of noise about it. She assumed the armored man wouldn't do anything to a dog. Yet considering Junker had almost been killed the day before, Rose didn't want to take any chances.

Soon she lost sight of her ship as well. It didn't bother hear nearly as much as Junker's disappearance. The ship wasn't going to move.

Eventually Rose came to a crossroads of sorts in the battlefield. It was an odd place to find a crossroads. There was still no sign of Junker. He could have taken any path, or not even come in this direction at all. Rose decided to keep going straight.

"Well look at you!"

She turned around to see a man had appeared behind her. The sun made the canyon very hot, but he wore a black cloak anyway, and it didn't seem to effect him. His tied-back black hair was streaked with grey, which was odd because his face did not show much age, only a scar. He must have been missing an eye on the other side of his face; he wore an eye-patch.

It wasn't the first time Rose had seen someone with an eye-patch on. He happened to be the first man she had seen wear an eye-patch. Hadn't everyone in Radiant Garden said he was gone?

The man—she supposed his name was Xigbar now, from what Ienzo had warned her about—continued to smirk as Rose thought about what to do. She could still take the left or right path, and hope that they somehow led to her ship. She could try to fight him, but something didn't feel right about him. While the other apprentices had hardly changed over the years, this one had gone through notable changes: he had grown his hair out. He still seemed to be a traitor.

"You're all grown up! Time sure does fly by, doesn't it?" Xigbar waved his hand purposelessly. "You really do look just like him! Talk about a spitting image."

Rose glanced at the other two paths, tensing up.

"Don't think you can get away so easily. You know, you and I got a lot in common, Rosie Posie." He went on, not even reintroducing himself. "Maleficent did a number on you—"

Having heard enough of his useless talking, Rose pulled her sword out and charged. While he moved out of the way, Xigbar was still caught off-guard enough that his friendly facade dropped. She pivoted and launched herself at him again, then barely dodged in time when she noticed he was suddenly holding odd guns.

"The only difference between us is that I'm a vessel that's worthwhile." He smirked again, raising the (presumably) guns.

Rose chose the road she had come from and ran, putting her sword away. The glowing shards of the guns landed close to her feet. He was toying with her for now, but eventually he would end it with one in her back.

Junker was still nowhere to be seen. If Xigbar had seen him, he probably would have mocked Rose with him, too. She couldn't spend anymore time on the planet looking for him. Her pursuer was doing a good job of keeping up and shooting at her. She didn't know how he was doing it.

The ship came into sight. It seemed to take forever for Rose to reach it. One of the shard-bullets grazed her calf. She stumbled, but kept going. As she came nearer to the ship, she heard barking. Rose cursed at Junker for the first time in a long while.

Just as Rose was approaching the ship, Xigbar sudden appeared at its entrance. She slid in the dirt and fell backwards. As usual, Junker bounded towards the new person to say hello. Xigbar kicked him away. Rose stood, grabbing a handful of loose dirt and tossing it into his face while he was still focused on the dog that was cowering in the ship. She entered it herself and quickly shut the door.

She just as quickly turned the ship on and had it in the air, presumably while he was still wiping dirt out of his only remaining eye. She hoped the take-off had put him on his ass as well.

As always, the take-off was the hardest part of the trip for Junker. Rose didn't mind as he forced himself onto her lap, even if it did make it difficult to see where she was going. Once they were completely out of the world, she looked him over. He was filthy and defeated, but not hurt.

Eventually, Junker realized how uncomfortable it was to sit on top of Rose, and sulked over to her bed. With some armor pieces in the ship, she assumed that the job was done, and she set course to finish it. She hoped it was the last trip she ever needed to take to that world.

* * *

It wasn't until she was some distance away from the old battlefield world, that Rose slowed and stopped the ship in space. She didn't think she was being chased anymore by this point.

Space had always been an escape from all the problems she faced on the ground, in whatever world she happened to be in. Maleficent herself had once said that she could not easily reach Rose while she was in between worlds. Whenever she was flying, it was easy to forget what happened, especially with the witch, and focus on her jobs. The only benefit of being on land was that Rose felt she escaped Reed and Brutus's death. Now that Reed was grounded, she had assumed that she could fly freely.

With the appearance of one of the traitors, things were different. He was still following Xehanort, who apparently was still alive and doing as he pleased, which couldn't be good for anyone. Rose didn't understand what was happening, but that traitorous guard gave her a clue of what it really meant. It was unsettling.

She still remembered him as the guard that would play along with her games, and encourage whatever trouble she was getting into. Rose didn't realize how much of a comfort it was that Aelus hadn't changed at all. The lanky guard had changed so much. He was the only one that tried to kill her on sight, rather than the other way around, as when Rose first met Ienzo.

None of it made sense, or was fair. She wished she had never gone home. She wished nothing had ever happened, but she knew that was asking too much. Just as one problem resolved itself, a much larger problem came along. It wasn't as though Rose was making a nuisance of herself. Everyone seemed to think she was, especially Maleficent and Xehanort. Now they wanted to take the freedom of space away from her, too.

Junker must have gotten bored, because he approached Rose and put his front legs on her lap, making himself sit awkwardly on the floor. She gave him the attention he was seeking. He always seemed to help her avoid whatever fit she was about to go into. Junker and the ship were the only two good things in her life.

Rose had to wonder if it was worth it to look for the black box. If she found it, it would only make her more of a target, although she didn't know for what. If Maleficent or Xehanort got it, it would be very bad, but Rose wasn't sure it would make a difference to her. She was discarded, and could do whatever she wanted. She could even abandon Radiant Garden. They might not even notice, or assumed that she finally got killed somewhere. Maybe that wasn't a bad thing.

* * *

Rose began flying again, but it wasn't long into the journey before Junker began whining. He approached the controls and looked out the windows as they were passing a world. Rose rolled her eyes, having assumed that he had taken care of business in the wasteland world. She just wanted to get paid, and continue looking for Maleficent's stupid black box.

She didn't want Junker to make a mess in her ship, so she landed next to a strange tower. It looked ageless. It was difficult to tell if it was abandoned or not. The extra loot could be useful. It was strange that it was nighttime in the world; Rose didn't think it was so late in this area of space.

Once let out of the ship, Junker went straight for the tower's door. His tail wagged furiously as he scratched at the wood. Rose rolled her eyes again.

"You can't just barge into someone's home." She scolded, although it didn't bother him. Junker was determined, and Rose was curious. Surprisingly, the door was not locked. He bounded forward once the door was opened for him. She begrudgingly followed him up the stairs, which seemed to be the only thing in the tower.

At the top was another door, which led into an empty room. Junker went for the next door. It led to more stairs, and then another empty room. Like the first room, the second led to another staircase. Rose hadn't thought that the tower had been big enough to fit these rooms and staircases. At least it wasn't as ugly as Maleficent's tower. This tower had windows.

The stairs didn't tire Junker out. He waited impatiently at yet another door, scratching at it. Rose only expected another empty room when she opened the door.

She was surprised to see bookshelves and a desk, and even moreso surprised to see a person sitting behind said desk. Before she realized it, Junker ran straight for the old man. He ignored Rose completely when she called him back. She should have brought his leash.

Instead of the usual pouncing, Junker sat obediently next to the old man behind the desk, tail still wagging tirelessly. Only then did the old man acknowledge that someone entered. Rose tried not to make a face as she noted the stupid conical blue hat on his head. Junker had led her to another wizard.

He pat the dog on the head, then reached into a drawer of his desk. He pulled out a bone-shaped treat and offered it to Junker. It quickly disappeared.

Once the dog was happily savoring his treat, the wizard turned his attention to Rose, who still remained in the doorway. She assumed there was no escaping this, entering the room and shutting the door behind herself. She approached the desk gloomily.

"Welcome," The wizard sat back in his chair. "I am Master Yen Sid. Merlin has told me about your predicament."

"What predicament?" Rose bristled, though she tried to keep the edge out of her voice. While Merlin was patient with her, she had a feeling that this one didn't get many visitors, and wouldn't think twice about turning her into a frog.

Yen Sid ignored her tone as he elaborated. "The witch Maleficent is not someone who is easily defeated. And yet you have managed to gravely wound her twice."

"That's not what I've heard." Rose muttered.

"Indeed, she recovered quickly each time. Yet it is not something to take lightly." Yen Sid pointed out. "Master Xehanort has noticed as well."

"Master?" She snorted. Considering the large painting of the apprentice in her father's study, it shouldn't have come as a surprise that Xehanort thought himself as the master.

"The Xehanort you knew is not the real Xehanort. He was only one of several vessels Xehanort has made for himself." The wizard explained. "Maleficent did not come up with the idea of creating a vessel on her own."

Rose didn't like what he was implying. It seemed like this conversation was going to go poorly for her. "Well she failed and gave up. She's not very good at keeping control over things."

Both Rose and Radiant Garden were now out of the witch's control, if only because she had better things to do than suppress either of them.

"She has more control than you realize, but she also knows when to leave a lost cause." Yen Sid stated. "Your status as princess could have helped her keep control of the kingdom, but there is nothing else about you that is especially unique. It is not Maleficent's only base of operation."

"She should just stay in her own world and be miserable there." Rose grumbled. She was only targeted because she was a convenience; even Yen Sid admitted that there was no other special quality about her.

He showed slight amusement at her response. "Oh? That is not a fate you are willing to suffer yourself. You would not be traveling otherwise."

"I'm not trying to ruin other people's lives." Other than the ones she had inadvertently ruined. "She plans on doing something once she has that black box."

"And if you were to obtain the box, what would you do then? Both Maleficent and Master Xehanort would pursue you. There is not a place you could hide from them."

Rose was stumped by his question. She couldn't take it to Radiant Garden; they would look there first, and destroy the place again in their search. Montressor was full of pirates that would hunt down anything if the bounty was high enough. She didn't know any other place well enough.

Junker approached her in the brief moment of silence, looking for her approval. She pat his head.

"Needless to say, it is not only your life that could be at risk." Yen Sid nodded. "He's an unusual creature, but a good companion all the same."

"He's something." Rose mumbled, continuing to pet Junker. Neither seemed to mind her vague reply.

"Searching for the black box would be perilous to you both."

She spoke up before he could say more. "Why? Because I'm not a key holder?"

"Keyblade wielder." The wizard corrected. "Even so, this is a task only for masters. It would be best that you return home. There is much you could do to help there."

"They have plenty of help already. They don't care to have me, either."

"Give it time and you will understand your role." He countered. "Though before you go, I would like you to return those pieces of armor."

It wasn't enough that Yen Sid was telling her she wasn't good enough for the task, but now he wanted cargo from her ship, too. Rose was going to be paid well for those armor pieces—enough to get back on her feet and afford to keep flying. They were the only things that seemed to be in demand at the moment.

"Why? No one was using them." Rose defended herself.

"You should have never taken anything from that world. It was where the Keyblade War took place long ago. The place has been untouched since, as it should remain." Yen Sid frowned.

"Keyblades sound like too much trouble." She scowled. "If it was so long ago, why is everything in good condition?"

"They have magical properties." Yen Sid didn't seem to want to explain further to her. "Such relics should not be treated as mere commodities."

"I have to make a living somehow."

He frowned. "Name your price."

Rose suddenly became willing to negotiate. Finally, she could forget about her home, Maleficent, and now Xehanort, and focus on her occupation, even if it was not honorable. She remembered the price very well; the armor pieces were very valuable, and she was the only one left that could acquire them. "One hundred fifty thousand, each. I have three suits in my ship now."

Yen Sid's eyes widened, as if he had just been hit. Honestly, Rose had raised the prices. She named the compensation she was going to receive, just like he had asked.

"What are they being used for?"

"It's not my place to say." She was enjoying that she now had the upper hand in this encounter. She was fed up with being talked down to by everyone.

He sighed, reaching into a drawer in his desk. After a moment, he set a small, unassuming coin purse at the front of his desk. Rose raised a brow at his offer.

"I would recommend not dumping its contents out recklessly." Yen Sid warned. "There is more in there than you think."

"One of your wizard tricks?" She hoped it was a good one, at least. He could be like Maleficent.

He smiled wryly. "Of a sort, yes."

"I'll get the suits, then."

Raising a hand, Yen Sid shook his head. "Do not trouble yourself."

With a puff of smoke, the crate of armor pieces suddenly appeared in the study, not far from where Rose stood. Junker yelped as he was startled, then sniffed at the crate. As far as they knew, it was the exact same one from the ship.

Not only could Yen Sid spy on Rose whenever he pleased, but he could also just take things, too. It was a fortunate thing that he was not a pirate, and he did not want to meddle into her life any further.

He was still amused by himself when she approached the desk and took the coin purse. It was clearly time to leave, which Rose had wanted to do since Junker led her here. Even if Yen Sid paid fairly (and she would check), she was beginning to hate wizards.

"I won't go to the badlands again." Rose assured, knowing that he would be watching. He and that traitor seemed to have a fascination with the place. It was all the reason she needed to stay away.

Yen Sid nodded, happy with the answer. "Safe travels."

Rose hurried a little too quickly to the door once she was dismissed. She didn't even mind the long trek down the stairs. They tired Junker out. He hardly minded when they entered the ship and it took off, laying on Rose's bed.

* * *

With the suits of armor gone, Rose had to forfeit the job. She had the perfect excuse to tell the client, but doubted she would be contacted again. It was like she was starting all over. Starting out was always harder than being established, no matter what the occupation.

Though she had a radio in her ship now, Rose had yet to try it out. She also did not want anyone contacting her whenever they pleased (so far, Ienzo hadn't bothered her with that new cell phone that was now lost somewhere in the ship). Using a world's communication services was much more convenient.

Landing in one such world, Rose looked into her supplies, which were scattered about the ship. She wasn't a very organized person. She pulled out Yen Sid's coin purse, finally opening it to see how much he paid. Against his warning, Rose turned the purse over to dump the coins on top of a box. They spilled out like normal coins, but the bag was still bulged, and never became lighter. She put it upright once the pile was big enough. When she tried placing coins back in, she found that they would not fit. Rose didn't understand the meaning of this trick.

Yen Sid paid fairly for the armor pieces after all. Still, it was more money than she needed. Why would a wizard give a nobody like Rose so much money? How did a hermit-wizard end up with a lot of money in the first place? She could put it away and not have to do jobs for anyone for a long time (and with her loss of reputation, that would probably be the case). There was also the risk that someone could find out that she had all of this money. It seemed real enough.

The more she thought about it, the more things Rose came up with to spend it on. Her mother's house could use the repairs, for one example. Technically, it was her house now. That was always a strange thought. Maybe she couldn't completely abandon Radiant Garden, but she wasn't ready to go home yet.

Even so, the whole point of earning money was that then Rose could focus on finding Maleficent's box without fear of running out of fuel or food, and whatever else would go wrong. The box was becoming much more trouble than she initially thought.

Yen Sid's words irritated her: she wasn't a master with a special weapon, nor anyone special enough for the attention she received. He didn't want her involved in whatever plot was going on. Rose didn't want to be involved either, but it wasn't a decision she had made for herself. Xehanort's minion had already tried to kill her off. Xehanort was the one who had caused all of this to begin with.

The wizard might have paid fairly, but Rose still did not like him. Who was he to tell her what to do? She wasn't going to listen to what he said. If she died while looking for the box, it wouldn't be so bad. Junker was another story, though.

Rose pet the dog as she mused over the money, then searched for his leash and collar. She didn't have to report her lost job right away. She and Junker were in more need of a walk.

* * *

It wasn't until after Rose was flying over the wilderness that she realized how odd her ship must look from the ground. The people were so far removed from everything that they wouldn't know what was in the sky. What took days to travel on foot only took a couple of hours by ship, especially as Rose knew where to look.

Her observation was proven true as she landed the ship close to her mother's house. Fiona stood from her work in the small vegetable patch, but didn't approach out of wariness. Once the ship's door was open, Junker ran to her, barking happily. Rose followed behind at a slower pace.

"Is that what city people use to get around?" The older woman asked once she was close enough. She had a slight scowl at she glanced at the ship.

"Not really." Rose answered vaguely. She didn't want to spend the time explaining that there were other worlds out there; it would take too long, and Fiona probably wouldn't care to know.

"I didn't expect to see you back so soon." She pet Junker, finally turning her attention away from the oddity.

"I have a favor to ask." Rose hated to ask favors of others. It was asking for help, and it would be held against her. "I'm going on a long trip, and I can't take him with me."

After having taken care of Junker herself for awhile, Rose realized how much work it took, and how much of that work Fiona had done while she was ill. It was asking a lot, but the older woman could probably use the company. Although she never acted as though she had enjoyed it before.

"If he was meant to be in the sky, he would have wings." Fiona stated. "I'm surprised he isn't afraid of that thing."

"He's gotten better." He would probably be afraid again when Rose came to retrieve him—if she survived.

"How long will you be gone?"

She shrugged. "I don't know."

Fiona grunted. Junker turned his attention to Rose, who knelt to pet him. His tail wagged in ignorant bliss. He was very happy to see Fiona again.

"Should I take him inside?" The older woman asked when Rose stood.

"Yeah. He'll follow me when I leave." She was going to miss that constant companionship.

As if they hadn't been gone for a couple weeks at all, Junker followed Fiona immediately as she called for his attention. She took him into the house with the promise of food. Once she saw the dog disappear through the back door, Rose turned and walked towards her ship, forcing herself to not look back. She would never understand why Junker didn't get attached to Fiona more than he did to her.


	11. Chapter 11

Rose left the world before she could take Junker back, or the dog would realize that she wasn't there. She didn't think she had ever left someone behind before, but she knew how it felt to be abandoned. She forced herself to focus on the task at hand.

With plenty of money and supplies in the ship, Rose could search for Maleficent's black box freely. She could vaguely recall what it looked like in the witch's memory, although the more she mulled over the image, the less she seemed to remember about it. How could either of them be sure that it was what the box was supposed to look like? It was hard enough to determine what world it could be in.

Maleficent knew more behind it—she was already closer to the box than Rose would like. At the same time, though, she would provide the only clues about the box. Rose could try chasing after her, somehow keeping just far enough away that she wouldn't notice. Yet Maleficent was just as difficult to find as her precious box. She didn't need a ship to get around between worlds.

Any time Rose spent not moving was all the more closer the witch came to her goal. She eventually chose a direction to fly in. It crossed her mind to check the deserted battlefield again, but she did not want to run into Xigbar. Avoiding that place was the only piece of advice from Yen Sid that she would listen to.

For days, Rose visited worlds that she thought Maleficent would go to. She passed many others that definitely wouldn't have the right mystical item she was seeking. She never saw Maleficent, but occasionally there were rumors of a terrifying woman in black. It couldn't be anyone else. Since rumors were the only indication of her presence, Rose knew that she had already left the world, and the box was not there.

Rumors were a helpful trail, but they never told Rose where to go next. She spent just as much time in worlds where neither Maleficent nor the box were, and took too long to figure that out. There was no way of knowing otherwise, though. There wasn't a pattern between the worlds and their rumors—as if Maleficent was grasping at every little hint as well.

* * *

After visiting several worlds, Rose came across the one where Brutus had died. As much as she wanted to skip over it, she also remembered that it had been Maleficent's trickery that caused the incident. Why was the witch in that world in the first place? It couldn't have been to manipulate Rose. Perhaps one of the things the crew of smugglers were supposed to find in the cave was a black box.

Without much more thought, she landed her ship in the world and entered the cavern, only taking a flashlight and her sword. Rose didn't have a map, and assumed the underground system wasn't very big—just twisted. It seemed like the place to hide a mysterious box.

She marched through, finding plenty of Heartless to take care of, but no treasure of any kind. It was possible the cave had already been cleaned out by other smugglers. Still, Rose kept looking. The path twisted so much that she wasn't sure where she had struck Brutus down. The blood had soaked into the dirt long ago.

After awhile, she caught a glimpse of a long black robe trailing ahead of her. She slowed down and turned off her flashlight to remain undetected, but it seemed that no matter how slowly she went, Maleficent was still just ahead of her, her form silhouetted by the faint green glow of her staff. The witch did not move quickly as she searched.

Both of them crept on in the dark for what seemed like hours. Rose tried to move silently, but there were plenty of rocks to accidentally kick or stumble over. Maleficent never appeared to hear any of it, gliding along silently as always.

The light from Maleficent's staff brightened as they entered a chamber. It was a dead-end of the path, but she strolled to the center, her light revealing a large black trunk in front of her.

She bent over to inspect it. Rose hesitated at first; she hadn't expected it to go like this. She pulled her sword from its place at her side. The small noise alerted the witch, who finally took notice of the girl. Rose swiped at her, knocking her aside. She didn't give Maleficent a moment to react before she plunged the sword into her side. The witch gave a shriek and Rose twisted the blade where it stuck. After another moment, she laid motionless.

It took two minutes for Rose to realize that she still held the hilt of her sword, which was still embedded in Maleficent's abdomen. She let go and backed away. After everything, was it really so easy to strike Maleficent down? Rose had only wanted to keep her from getting her box. She hadn't considered killing her, but murder surprisingly came easy to her. It wasn't as tense as the first time; then again, Maleficent had done plenty of wrong towards Rose, whereas Brutus hadn't. Rose tried to think that Maleficent brought this upon herself.

She turned her attention to the box. Before, she hadn't cared what was in the box, so much that Maleficent and Xehanort did not get it. But after the frantic searching, she wondered what it was they were after. She didn't think Maleficent ever really knew what was in the box, just that she wanted it before Xehanort could have it.

The box looked ageless, and lacked a lock. There were strange etchings on it, but Rose didn't think anything of it. She struggled to lift the top; there was no way she would be able to take the trunk back to her ship, and it would serve Xehanort right to find the box, only for it to be empty.

When it was only open a crack, the lid suddenly flew back. Rose was thrown to the ground as something launched out of the box. The black form pinned her to the ground, its grip digging into her wrists. It didn't have much of a face, but she thought it looked familiar. It didn't really matter—Rose wrestled to get free, eventually shoving the creature away and scrambling to retrieve her sword.

Just as she was about to reach it, she was kicked down from behind, then dragged by one leg from Maleficent's dead body. She was then pulled up by her hair and shoved against the wall, feeling clawed hands tightly around her neck. Rose grasped the shady wrists and kicked limply. Stuck and losing breath, she suddenly realized that the shade looked just like her.

Her double morphed into Maleficent, and the cave's chamber became the interior of Rose's ship. Claws still dug into her neck. Despite the changes, she was still just as much trapped.

"Do you ever learn anything?" The woman scolded. "This foolishness made you a useless puppet. You're too afraid of your own rage. I'd end you myself, but it's easier to let your own misery do the job for me. Heed my warning, girl: stay out of my way."

"Get out of my ship." Rose managed to speak as she was choked.

Just as she spoke, the ship began accelerating, shaking violently. Maleficent glanced out the windshield and smirked. "Fall."

No sooner had she vanished and Rose was released did the ship meet land in a nosedive. The front caved in, glass flying everywhere alongside loose supplies. The ship began to fall onto its roof. In the midst of the chaos, Rose's sword appeared before her, plunging itself deep into her side, then twisting.

She gave a jerk, and suddenly the sword was at her side like always. She laid on the floor before the bridge. The ship was in order as before, floating idly in space.

Standing, Rose grabbed the closest thing to her and threw it as hard as she could at the back wall. Then she grabbed another object and threw it just as hard. She continued to throw things until she ran out of things to throw. She knocked the clutter off of the tops of some crates, and kicked in one of their sides for good measure. Her ship now a mess, Rose plopped down on her mattress with a cry of frustration.

She could not hold back any more crying, although she tried. It had been easy to distract herself with Junker, but he was gone. He was better off with Fiona, rather than Rose, who could possibly hurt him. Maleficent's words were true: she was useless, and no one wanted her around. Why would they, when she was so explosive?

Rose hated to feel so useless. She was fine with others not wanting her to be around—she didn't exactly want to be around them most of the time either. Others like Yen Sid wanted her to stay in one place and do as told, becoming everyone's useless puppet. She couldn't endure being made so powerless. And yet being made powerless, what could she do?

Over some time, the fit subsided, although Rose didn't feel better about herself in part because it had happened. She sat there awhile, mulling over her options. She couldn't go home, obviously having failed in her revenge scheme, and unwilling to listen to anyone. Maleficent and Xehanort could have their box; whatever was in it was dark, and Rose hoped they would get just what they deserved from it.

There wasn't anything else she could do. She contemplated letting the oxygen tanks deplete themselves, but then that would give Maleficent what she wanted.

As she thought, a muffled ringing sounded somewhere in the ship. At first, Rose didn't react. She only looked for its source when it began to get on her nerves.

It turned out to be the phone Ienzo had given her. It was one of the things she had thrown, and had a crack across the screen from the impact. Still, it worked, as was obvious from the ringing. It was the first time anyone tried contacting her with it. Rose pressed the green pick-up button, and Ienzo's face appeared on the screen.

"Rose, I've been trying to reach you—are you alright? Did something happen?"

"It's none of your business." She scowled, taking slight amusement at how the crack on the screen cut across his face. "What do you want?"

Ienzo frowned at being barked at. "I have a favor to ask. Do you recall when I explained that we are researching how others could still possibly return? Actually, perhaps I had that conversation with someone else. Regardless, I was hoping you could gather some supplies for me. They aren't available on this world. I understand you have your own quest-"

"What do you need?" Rose hated how verbose he had become; he was more pleasant when he didn't speak so much.

"Do you have pen and paper? There's quite a few things, and it would be best if you had a list on hand."

With the ship in a mess as it was, it took a couple of minutes for Rose to find a working pen and blank paper. She wrote down what Ienzo asked for. Reading over the list, she looked back at Ienzo skeptically.

"How is any of this stuff supposed to do anything?"

"These materials are needed for the lab to produce replicas." He explained, "Well, let me start at the beginning: there are others whose hearts exist within Sora and Kairi, and we hope to make replicas in which they can exist on their own. Just as you and I do."

"Isn't this experimenting what got us all in this mess in the first place?"

"Please trust me. They deserve to exist like we do. For now, they're trapped in another person's heart."

Rose had to wonder if Ienzo knew that would have some effect on her. One thing that hadn't changed about him was how he could gently influence others in what appeared to be innocence. He had a point and he knew it. Being trapped was no different from being powerless.

"Fine." She pressed the red end button, making Ienzo's face disappear. The idea made her uneasy—the apprentices' previous meddling didn't end well for many worlds. She didn't understand exactly what it was they were trying to do now. Still, it was something she could do, even if she had no reason to help these missing people, or even Ienzo.

* * *

Gathering the materials was not as difficult as searching for the box had been. Ienzo had known where some of them were, and Rose could easily find the rest in smuggling havens and other black markets. The items definitely looked technical, if not sinister once she thought about what he could use them for. He probably wasn't being straightforward about what he was really trying to do.

Rose became more cautious as she flew. Knowing that Maleficent, and probably others, could enter her ship whenever they pleased, she didn't feel so safe and free in her vessel anymore.

She flew straight for Radiant Garden, although not before cleaning the ship up a bit. No one needed to suspect anything had happened. Not that anyone would bother to pry; perhaps she should be the one doing that. Rose would give Ienzo what he wanted, but she was still skeptical about his intentions.

Rather than take the ship to Cid's shop, she landed it within the castle's back gardens, which didn't look like a garden at all without the rows of flowers. The only flowers that had seemed to survive was bushes of honeysuckle, having overtaken the others when they didn't make it. Rose made sure to avoid them.

For what few people lived in the castle, it looked better each time Rose saw it. They didn't guard or lock it, as she was able to walk in through nearby doors. Ienzo would either be in the lab or the library. Wandering would eventually take her to one of those places. Either way, she had books to give back to him. She wouldn't need their star charts anymore.

There was a time where the castle had been full of people. Rose tried to remember it, but it was blurry. She preferred the castle this way. It was quiet and no one was trying to tell her what to do. She had to wonder why her mother chose such a life. It was just another form of entrapment.

Rose found the library, but Ienzo was not there. She left the books on a desk; it wasn't her job to put them away. She turned back in the hallway and began in the opposite direction. At least finding her way around her childhood home was easier without Junker wandering off.

She didn't have the same affinity for this place that she had for her mother's home, but she hadn't been stuck in the castle for a couple of months, waiting for winter to pass. At least in the outermost territories, there were things Rose could do to be useful. Contrary to what Yen Sid thought, she didn't know science or computers, so she wasn't useful in the castle. Sometimes the two places felt like different worlds.

"Rose?"

Caught by surprise, she whipped around to see who had snuck up on her. The voice hadn't been familiar at all. The sight of a black coat was alarming, but the lack of a threat showed that he was not one of Xehanort's lackeys. The face—which Rose remembered from photographs—gave her a different sense of uneasiness. Ansem the Wise had returned after all.

He seemed just as surprised to see it was really her, but happier than she was. He took a few steps closer, although not too close. Rose was thankful for that.

"I shouldn't have doubted that you would have survived." He shook his head in amusement, then became more somber. "What about your mother?"

"She's been gone the whole time." Rose frowned. She didn't want to talk about her with Ansem. "The others didn't tell you anything?"

"No, I've only just arrived. Ienzo and the guards are preparing the lab." He explained, "Is there something wrong, Rose?"

"I don't trust Ienzo's plan." She stated. "You can't just make people."

Ansem sighed. "Their hearts already exist, but they need bodies in order to live freely on their own. I have already denied them that once before. Now I must make amends towards the ones I've hurt the most. Once I've made things right, we will put the experimenting behind us. I know it has taken a great deal of my time away from you."

Once again, Rose was even more confused by his explanation. There was a lot of events that people did not explain to her. Why weren't the traitors the ones Ansem had hurt the most, when they obviously deserved it?

"But what of your adventures? I assume that ship sitting on the begonia patch is yours. You always did want to see the worlds beyond ours." He smiled again.

"They were fine." Rose shrugged. They were even more things that she didn't want to share with him. Too much had gone wrong. "How did you get here?"

"Even brought me back. He is with Xehanort, but it appears that's not where his heart is."

She scowled at the idea of Xehanort's followers being able to enter the castle. "He and Xigbar are still traitors."

There was a twinge of sadness in Ansem's face. "Don't let your anger consume you. I have taken that path for too many years, and this has gone on too long. We should not focus on who is at fault, but how we can all help towards a good ending in all of this. Anger will only cause you to hurt others and yourself."

Rose continued to scowl. Once again, there was an old man telling her what to do, as if he knew what she went through. Yet it was different with this old man. She had known that he wasn't dead, but she had forgotten about him in her quest for revenge against Maleficent. It could have gotten her killed, and it wouldn't have made a difference to anyone. Rose could have easily been forgotten.

"Fine." She grumbled. "I have some stuff for Ienzo in my ship. I don't know what use it all is, but he wanted it."

"Did he? We have a replica already, courtesy of Even." Ansem raised a brow.

"Ienzo made it sound as though you need more than one."

"Indeed. Let me help you."

Not many people went near Rose's ship, and she was reluctant to change that. What would he think of her living quarters? Though knowing that he had been in a place like death, he probably wouldn't see a problem with it, just as Rose didn't. Yet there were other small details within the ship that would be better left unseen. What if Ansem found out she had been a smuggler?

She led him out to the garden anyway. Luckily, she had put all of Ienzo's supplies in one crate. A heavy crate, so Ansem's help was actually needed. Opening the hull door on the ship, Rose entered and dragged the crate to the door. Ansem thankfully did not invite himself inside, only helping once she had it almost out of the ship.

Neither one of them were strong, so it took some time for both of them to carry the crate into the castle and to the lab. He knew the way better than she did, saving at least some time. Ienzo was surprised to see Rose and the crate as they set it down by the computer.

"I didn't expect to see you back so soon." He admitted, looking inside the crate. "How did you find everything so quickly?"

"Don't ask." Rose muttered. She had to wonder if Ienzo would have even bothered to call her to let her know Ansem had finally returned home.

He glanced around warily. "Where's Junker?"

"Junker?" Ansem glanced at Rose, obviously disapproving of the name.

"My dog. I left him with a sitter."

"I take it you didn't find what you were looking for?" Ienzo continued to ask annoying questions.

"It doesn't matter now." She stated.

"Well, thank you for your help."

Rose rolled her eyes. "Don't make me regret it."

She turned and left the lab. The men had to get to work, and she wouldn't be of any use. She didn't mind. After encountering Ansem, she wanted some space. It was a good time to go see Junker.

* * *

The sun was setting by the time Rose had reached her mother's house. Junker was laying beside Fiona as she scrubbed laundry in a bucket on the back steps. He perked up and barked as the ship landed.

No sooner had Rose exited the ship did Junker run into her, knocking her to the ground. As much as she tried to avoid it, he licked her face a couple of times. His tail wagged vigorously as he continued to pin her down. It took a lot of petting before he was satisfied.

When Junker finally got off of Rose, she went over to Fiona, who continued scrubbing. It almost seemed that she was ignoring them.

"When your mother told me she was going on a long trip, she never came back." She said, stopping from her work to look up at Rose. "I expected the same from you."

"It wasn't worth the trouble." The girl admitted, petting Junker as he sat by her side. "How was he?"

"He's good company." Fiona said with a shrug. "Are you staying for supper?"

Rose thought it over. "Yes."

"Good. There's a pot of vegetables near the stove. Boil them and set the table."

Without another word, Rose stepped around Fiona and entered the kitchen through the back door. Junker followed, as the older woman wasn't doing anything interesting. Though she had abandoned him, he immediately came to her side again. He really was a stupid dog.

She did as instructed, taking over the dinner preparations while Fiona continued to work outside. When everything was ready, Rose called her inside. As they took their seats at the table, it was almost as if she hadn't left at all. She had to wonder if Fiona wouldn't mind if she stayed forever. It was a big house for only one woman.

Aside from Junker's noises as he ate, it was quiet at the table for two minutes. Rose quickly realized that she couldn't stay.

"My father's back." She announced.

The older woman raised her brows, but continued to focus on her plate. "The king? Never even noticed he was missing in the first place."

Taking the coin purse from her pocket, Rose dumped some money into her hand and offered it. "Here. This is for everything."

"Don't need it." She grunted. "When the world ends and the whole village thinks they're the only ones left, money loses its meaning. I suppose that's one good thing out of all this."

"It won't be that way forever. The city is nearly rebuilt. It won't be long before reconstruction happens out here as well." Rose put the money back into her pocket regardless.

Fiona shook her head. "The city never sent support out to us in the first place. I doubt that will change now. It's for the best, anyway. Better than the king's men getting too involved in our local politics. Or us getting into theirs."

She had a point. The village was set far enough from the city that neither one often acknowledged the other. Maybe that was what attracted Rose to this place: an escape from everything the city placed on her. She wasn't a princess out here; she was just a half-useful girl. But she was an outsider from the city, and it gave the people here reason to not trust her. They weren't as friendly as the city people. They didn't have a reason to be.

This place helped Rose connect with her mother, but her mother had been gone a long time. Her father was still alive. He was older than she remembered. In all the years she spent wishing to reunite with her parents, she hadn't thought that they would have gotten old in that time. Thirteen years was a long time, and it had been longer than that by now. How much longer did Ansem have?

Dinner passed in silence as Rose mulled everything over. She stayed to help clean up, but felt that she was overstaying her welcome.

"I should get back." She acknowledged.

"You should, before any gawkers come to look at that thing." Fiona agreed, gesturing towards the ship outside of the window. "Rumor has it that I've been receiving strange visitors."

"They'll get used to the sight of it." Rose planned on coming back. She would do what her mother failed to achieve.

With that, she went for the ship. Junker followed, as if he had forgotten what happened when the door was shut and the engine was turned on. Despite his whines and attempts to get on her lap, she didn't mind having him back.


	12. Chapter 12

Once back at the castle, Rose began wandering the halls. The men made themselves scarce, holed up in their lab as they worked on their replica. She was thankful for taking Fiona's offer of dinner; Ansem most likely would continue working with his apprentices until the replicas were made. It didn't sound like a fast process.

Junker was excited when he was let out of the ship. He ran about the garden, barking and digging holes as he pleased. At least he made himself at home at the castle.

Rose left him to enjoy himself. She would try to make herself at home as well, but she would not return to her childhood bedroom. Between her long stay outside of the city and the few days that she had been out of the world, much of the construction had been completed. From the outside, it looked as though nothing tragic had ever happened in the kingdom. Yet there was still a lot of work to be done inside the castle.

After much wandering, Rose settled on a room far from the lab, and far from anyone else's room. It was quiet on this side of the castle. No one would come this far away from their work.

With a room picked out, she began moving the basic necessities from her ship to her new bedroom. All she cared to move was her mattress and accompanying blankets. With Junker following her curiously as she dragged the mattress from the garden and through the castle, it made for a slow and clumsy trip.

Once that was taken care of, Rose took the dog back out to the garden. It wasn't long after he sniffed around that he found a stick and brought it to her. She decided to amuse him and threw it. Junker chased after the stick, then returned it to her to throw again. She continued the game for awhile, wondering who taught him how to play fetch. Fiona didn't seem like the type to do it.

Rose didn't expect to see anyone around, and didn't mind; Junker was the only company she needed. He eventually tired of fetch, laying down beside her to chew on the stick. Yet when he abandoned the stick and charged at the castle doors, she also bolted from her seat on the stone steps to keep him from pouncing on Ansem.

Instead of his usual pouncing, though, Junker sat before the old man, looking up at him expectantly while his tail thumped against the cobblestone patio. A brief look of fear had crossed Ansem's face when first charged at, but he smiled upon seeing that it was just an overly-friendly dog.

"This must be Junker." He pat the dog's head, then looked at Rose. "Ienzo told me that you are usually gone for much longer. I was worried."

"I was just getting him." She gestured towards Junker, who was very happy with the attention he was receiving. "I'm not going to start asking for permission."

Ansem twinged at her remark, but continued to smile. "Of course not. Why don't we take a walk? It has been a long time since I've seen the town. I've heard it has made great progress. Perhaps the ice cream stand will still be open."

"What about the replicas?"

"Ienzo is keeping an eye on Roxas. For now, we must wait." He explained.

Rose shrugged, giving in with some hesitation. "Alright."

Junker followed Ansem as he began walking back into the castle. She followed with less enthusiasm than the dog. She hadn't expected that her father would make time for her so soon; she had accepted that he would be too busy. Though Rose had come back to the castle for Ansem, she didn't have anything that she wanted to talk about.

He quickly realized that as they approached the main entrance. "We used to take secret trips for ice cream when you were little. Do you remember?"

She thought about it, then shook her head. "Not really."

Ansem paused as he opened the door for Rose. "Well, perhaps we didn't go as often as we should have."

She walked through the doorway, Junker close at her heels. Again, Ansem seemed to hesitate at the door, but followed after the two. From where they stood at the top of the steps, they could see that quite a few people were still out and about. The sun had just set.

Rose had a sinking feeling as they descended the stairs. No doubt once someone spotted the king, people would flock to him. He was the leader they were looking for, even if they were doing fine without one. The people would be much happier to see Ansem than they had been to see her. They wouldn't make it to the ice cream stand before they would take his attention away from her.

"Everyone thinks you're dead." Rose warned. "Something about key wielders and an Organization." She forgot what the story was, especially because it was Leon who explained it to her.

Ansem gave a slow nod. "Indeed, I tried to thwart Xehanort's plans to obtain Kingdom Hearts, and I even sacrificed my life for it. In the process of exacting revenge, I hurt others. Thankfully, I am free now to make amends to them."

He had explained it earlier, but Rose didn't understand it any better. She had to wonder what he did that was so bad. Perhaps it was as sinister as some of the things she had done. Yet she and Ansem had just met hours ago; she didn't want him to be ashamed of her on his first day back.

"Who were they?" Rose pried cautiously.

"Roxas and Namine were the Nobodies of Sora and Kairi, respectively. During that time, Sora had lost his memories because of Namine. She restored them, but he could not recover until Roxas rejoined with him. My desire for revenge sparked a hatred for Nobodies. I had denied them the right to exist, and refused to see that they had developed hearts of their own." Ansem sighed. "I hope they can forgive me."

It wasn't much clearer to Rose. He seemed to understand that when he glanced at her, and offered a smile.

"It doesn't do good to dwell on the past. That doesn't fix anything. I must also make amends to you. I was not as attentive as I should have been towards you in the past. I hope to change that, if you'll allow."

She wasn't sure what to say to that, but Ansem was obviously waiting for her to say something. "... Okay."

That pleased him. He looked around after they had walked through the square in front of the castle and up into the market street. "Ah. There it is."

The ice cream stand was still open, and there was a small line waiting to order. Rose and Junker continued to follow Ansem. As they approached, she noted the few older people watching them, trying to decide whether he was the king or not. He didn't pay them any mind, focusing instead on the menu board.

"They have many more flavors now." He noted. "Which do you think sounds good?"

"I don't know. There wasn't much ice cream where I grew up." Rose shrugged. Even when she left Montressor, she hadn't cared for the dessert. Yet Ansem did. "What did we used to get?"

"Sea salt ice cream. You might recall it when you've tried some." His attention was caught behind her. Rose turned, then grimaced, as she saw Yuffie, Leon, and Merlin approaching. Junker may have been tired, but at sight of the other girl, he perked up and trotted to her. Yuffie likewise squealed and happily pet him.

Merlin bowed to Ansem once he was close enough, and ushered Leon to do the same. "Welcome home, your Majesty!"

"Thank you. It's been too long. I am grateful to find that the kingdom has been restored." Ansem acknowledged.

"It's all thanks to the Restoration Committee. Leon, Yuffie, and Aerith founded it, but everyone has pitched in. Even Rose." Merlin explained, beaming. The king glanced at her, also pleased.

"It was nothing." She mumbled.

"Thank you." Ansem said again, directing it towards Leon this time.

"It's home to all of us, sir." The young man nodded.

The wizard gave an understanding smile. "Well, we won't keep you. The line keeps getting longer."

With nods between the two old men, Merlin and Leon went to claim a spot at the end of the line. Yuffie hurried after them when Leon mentioned that he wouldn't save a spot for her. Junker returned to Rose, who also pet him.

They were soon at the front of the line. Ansem ordered for both of them, and attempted to pay before Rose could count out the loose change in her pocket. The vendor gave them their ice creams for free, also welcoming him home. There was also a treat for Junker, so he wouldn't have to watch them eat.

Before anyone else could recognize Ansem and stop them again, he led the way to the fountain court. For as long as he had been gone, he seemed to know the city better than she did. Rose didn't tell him that there were still Heartless in the city; apparently the desire for ice cream was stronger than people's fear of the monsters.

She tried the ice cream as they walked. It wasn't bad, but she didn't care for it. It didn't spark any memory like she had hoped. She kept her thoughts to herself, believing that it was Ansem's favorite flavor, since he recalled it so easily.

"This used to be a popular spot for children. The guards would sometimes find you here when you snuck out of the castle." Ansem mentioned. "These were the only fountains that were to be played in, but few followed that rule."

"I think I like it better this way." Rose admitted. No one else was in the court at this hour of night. She hadn't seen many children around the city, but assumed they were all at home. Aside from the sounds of water falling into pools, the court was quiet.

"What happened after Xehanort banished me?" Ansem asked, getting onto a topic that she wanted to avoid. "Where did you go?"

She noticed that her ice cream was beginning to melt quickly, and took a few bites as she thought about her answer. "I don't really remember. Mom took me away, but she never mentioned anything about you. And then she was killed, but I escaped to another world."

It was difficult to remember things that had happened when Rose was a little girl. She also was not sure of how much truth she could tell him. Just that had caused him to frown.

"And then what happened?"

She gave a shrug. "I grew up in an orphanage, then learned how to fly a ship. Then I came here."

Ansem sighed, his ice cream stick bare. "I know there is more to it than that. But you don't have to tell me until you're ready. I'd much prefer that over you lying to me. Whatever it is, I'll still love you."

Rose glanced at the ground, clutching onto her bare ice cream stick. He may have said that, but he would probably change his mind if he really knew what she had done. He may have antagonized a few teenagers, but he hadn't killed anyone. Xehanort had simply thrown Ansem away; he hadn't toyed with him first like Maleficent had done with Rose.

"You haven't smiled once." Ansem noted solemnly.

She had nothing to say to that. She didn't have to apologize, either. It was an odd thought to consider that someone wanted to see her happy.

A long moment passed between them. Rose was so worried about disappointing him, yet it already felt as if she had let him down somehow. She wasn't being abandoned yet. She had to wonder if he really meant his words.

Junker yawned and settled next to Rose. Ansem gave a small smile at the dog. "We should return to the castle before he decides to sleep here. It still gets cold at night."

"Right." She agreed, taking the lead. Junker followed after stretching. She wanted some more alone time.

They walked back to the castle in silence. Rose didn't know what she had expected, but she should have smiled at some point. Ansem was worried. Maybe he suspected worse things had happened.

Once back inside the main hall, he turned to her. "I suspect we won't be seeing each other again tonight. Good night, Rose."

"Night." She mumbled, wondering if he offered so many smiles as a way to get her to smile in return.

Once Ansem began walking towards the lab, Rose went in the opposite direction, towards her room. Junker trailed behind. Though she hadn't run around as much as he had, she felt just as exhausted.

* * *

Again, there wasn't much to do around the castle the next day while everyone else was occupied in the lab. The conversation the night before hadn't comforted Rose very much, but Ansem wasn't demanding anything from her. She didn't understand his story very well, either.

Even if he wasn't demanding anything, Rose thought to do something that would make him happy with her. Doing something was better than waiting around and remembering everything bad she ever did.

The city was restored, but no one seemed to care about the outer territories beyond the mountains. They all believed they were wiped out, but Rose had visited a village out there a couple of times. She had vowed to restore what used to be out there, and to make it better than before.

She went to the library in search of maps and whatever else would come up about the territories. It would have been easier to just ask Ienzo where everything was, but he was in the lab, and he would have asked too many questions. How hard could it be to search a library?

After a couple of hours, Rose finally understood that it was much harder than she had assumed. There were plenty of maps of the city, but anything beyond the mountains was left blank. No one had cared to keep a record of it before. She thought about visiting Fiona again, but never saw such a map in the house before.

If spending time in the library bored Rose, then it tortured Junker. He couldn't run through the stacks like he wanted to. She took him out into the city, spending the afternoon walking to the city gates (which were always open, as they hadn't been repaired yet). That would be more productive than searching through the library.

When they had walked back in the beginning of spring, the basin had been empty, leaving no need for a bridge between the island city and its mainland. Now, the water was returning. Without a space ship or a boat, there was no way to get to or from the mountains. Putting the heart of a kingdom on an island hadn't been the best idea; it was no wonder that the city felt so separated from everything else.

Rose spent the afternoon wandering, returning to the castle at sunset when she and Junker became hungry. They found the mostly-renovated industrial kitchen—obnoxious for the few residents that lived there—easily and helped themselves to leftover take-out. The men were still nowhere to be seen, so it was probably okay to steal their food.

She didn't see anyone until after dark, which seemed to come early instead of later. She found Ansem and Ienzo standing in the castle gardens, looking up at something in the sky. It wasn't difficult to see the largest, brightest star.

"What's that?" Rose spoke up. Neither one of them startled; they had heard Junker approaching.

"It must be the world on which Sora and the others are confronting Xehanort." Ienzo explained.

Once again, she didn't know what was going on. Knowing it had something to do with magical keys, she didn't care too much about it. She continued to watch the star, vaguely recalling its position on a star map.

He turned to Ansem. "Do you think it's Kingdom Hearts?"

The old man nodded with a frown. "Xehanort must have achieved his goal after all."

"What does that mean for us?" Rose asked. So far, the world hadn't ended. If Xehanort got what he wanted, then it must have meant that Maleficent hadn't.

"Who can be sure? Xehanort is a mad man." Ansem shook his head.

"What about the replicas? Aren't they supposed to help?"

"Roxas disappeared awhile ago. We believe he went to Sora for his heart. We can't start on a replica for Namine without Even. He is still unable to return." Ienzo chose his words carefully, as if he finally understood that Rose didn't know what it all meant, and he assumed that she was stupid.

Rose thought it over, trying to make sense of it. After many years, probably longer than she had been alive, Xehanort finally completed his goal. Or so they believed based on what they knew about him. She still could not recall him as her father's apprentice. Was that even the real Xehanort? Trying to understand everything made her feel as if she was going mad. Rose didn't need any more help with that.

"Well, the world is still turning." She shrugged, although she remembered a different phrase that Reed had used. She didn't think Ienzo or Ansem would understand it, though. None of them were currently flying.

For all they knew, Xehanort might not even spare them a second thought now that he had his precious Heart thing. Maleficent had thrown Rose away in a similar way.

Ansem gave a small smile. "Indeed it is."

They continued to watch the star for awhile. She realized that it was the graveyard world Yen Sid had warned her about. There would be no returning to that world, although it was taking a long time to fade out of the sky.

It wasn't the first time Rose stargazed with Ansem; she remembered doing so in the observatory as a little girl. They knew so much more about those stars now—enough to know that they were worlds, and that the bright ones were most likely dying.

Junker didn't pay any mind to the stars, digging holes and rolling in the grass as he pleased. Even under such a dark omen, he remained positive. Eventually he tired, found a nice spot of grass that he hadn't trampled, and settled down.

There was no big final pulse when the star—or Heart power—was finished. It dimmed until it was completely gone. Nothing else happened, either. Anyone who hadn't been looking would be none the wiser to what had occurred. Rose had been watching, and she didn't understand what it meant.

"It's gone." Ienzo stated the obvious with some surprise.

"Sora and the others must have closed Kingdom Hearts." Ansem added, no longer morose.

"They must have killed Xehanort, too, right?" Rose assumed. How else would they stop him?

"I hope they won't have such a heavy burden to bear, but if they had no other choice..." He didn't finish, letting the other two think about it. "We'll know what happened soon enough. We must hope that Even survived, for Namine's sake."

Rose didn't care for Even; he had followed Xehanort twice now. Though he was probably better than Xigbar, who was devoutly following Xehanort. At least Even did it in order to backstab him.

She called Junker's attention. There was nothing else to see. It probably didn't mean anything for them, anyway. The battle between Sora and Xehanort didn't concern them.

* * *

Within the following day, one of the heroes arrived in an ugly gummi ship to visit Ansem and his apprentices, and Even appeared. Rose resolved to avoid them all. They were all soon preoccupied with making another replica, anyway.

Instead, she continued to search for any resources about the rural territories. She even visited Merlin, although she didn't like wizards. It was worth it; he knew quite a bit about the lands beyond the mountains. However, he didn't have a map.

A day later, Rose was walking to Ansem's study. Since Even and the replica had arrived, no one had been seen. She hoped that meant that they were working faster on it, so they could stop using the lab so much.

Just as she entered the hallway, the guards appeared as well, escorting a small girl. She seemed distracted by her surroundings, although there wasn't anything to look at in the hallway. The guards made anyone look tiny, but this girl was especially so.

Rose stepped aside to let them pass. Thankfully, she had left Junker out in the gardens, where he was enjoying himself. He would have easily knocked this girl over. She looked so fragile.

Her eyes finally came to Rose as she and the guards passed by. The girl smiled, and Rose felt her face grow warm. She hadn't realized that she had been staring.

Once they were out of sight, she began following them. She spotted them leaving through the main entrance door, and hurried her pace slightly. She didn't want to get caught, but also wanted to know where the guards were taking the mysterious girl.

Rose stayed by the door until she saw them disappear down the main stairs, then followed after them. At the same moment, the ugly ship returned, hovering over the square in front of the castle. She watched from the top of the steps as a silver-haired boy got out and offered his hand to the girl. They both climbed back into the ship, and it took off as fast as it had appeared.

The guards turned back up the steps. Rose also turned back for the castle, hoping that they hadn't seen her stalking them.

* * *

Even with the replicas complete and off to lead their own lives, it was awhile before Ansem separated from his apprentices. Rose assumed all went well; the girl, Namine, didn't look like she could hold a grudge. She looked so harmless that it bothered Rose to think that Ansem had hurt her before. Maybe her mother had been right: everyone did something wrong in all of this.

After bathing Junker and putting syrup on Even's office chair, she finally entered Ansem's study while he was left alone—something she had been trying to do for most of the day. He was surprised at her appearance (especially because she didn't knock on the door), but he didn't tell her to leave.

"Rose," He smiled, petting Junker as he approached him. "Is there something you need?"

She shrugged. "I don't know. What happens now? The replicas are finished."

"We rebuild and move on, but we shouldn't forget what has happened." Ansem explained. "I hope you'll assist me. You must have seen many things in your travels."

"I guess. This world is pretty outdated."

"Oh?"

"Most worlds I've been to have a port for ships. Traveling between worlds isn't so rare anymore. At least Ienzo brought phones to this world." Rose had no idea where her phone was, though.

Ansem gave a nod. "I would like you to move your ship from the garden. I hear Cid has a shop in town."

"The last time my ship was there, he didn't plan to give it back after rebuilding it for me. Why not make the lab smaller and make some space for my ship?" It was a selfish request. She spent little time down there, but it was a lot of space for five men to use. How could they use all of it?

He considered her suggestion for a moment. "I believe I can make the arrangements. But as you know more about ships and how to travel with them than I do, I would like you to oversee the developments of the garage and the port."

Rose frowned. She hadn't expected that, but Ansem had a point: she knew more about ships than he did. She could make her own personal garage. As much as she hated it, she would need help to make a port for the world. Judging from the hopeful look he had, the two projects would make him happy.

"Okay." Rose agreed hesitantly. "But there is another thing I'd like to do."

Ansem leaned forward on his desk. "What is it?"

She thought over her words carefully. "There are still settlements beyond the mountains. They've needed aid since before all this happened. It's why Mom came to the city in the first place. So... I thought I could do it."

Though she hated to bring her mother up with him, it drove the point home. It had to have been something that Rose's mother brought to his attention a couple of times. Becoming queen hadn't been the plan, and it only took her away from what she really wanted to achieve.

"How did you find them?" Ansem questioned. Rose had expected him to be a little happier to know that some people had survived.

"I only found one, but they said there were others. I was stranded out there during the winter. It's where Junker found me."

She hoped bringing attention to the dog would distract him, but Ansem only became more concerned. "Stranded?"

"Long story. The point is that I want to do what Mom promised to do." Rose felt a slight strain in her voice as she became more assertive. He could reject the whole idea if he thought it was too dangerous. Or if he didn't appreciate her tone.

It surprised Ansem. He spoke gently, "Of course. You can have anything you need to do it. It was important to her as well."

She only nodded in response, thankful that he didn't press for more information, and she avoided a fit. She thought that by spending time at home, her fits would go away and she would be normal. Now she had to be careful that no one ever saw them, much less that she hurt them.

After another moment, Rose remembered something. "There is another thing."

"Yes?" Ansem was patiently listening, but she had the impression that she was asking for a lot.

"I want Maleficent's tower destroyed."

He sat back in his chair. "I have heard that name before. Where is her tower?"

That he knew of the witch was a relief to Rose. There was a chance that he would understand. "In the basin. You haven't seen it yet?"

Of course Ansem hadn't. She realized that like before, his attention was only within the city's walls. With the walls nearly repaired, it was impossible to see the far-off tower from the streets. There was little chance he would have seen it from the castle while so preoccupied with everything else.

He shook his head and stood from his desk. "Show me."

Rose was glad to leave his window-less study. Junker was less so, having gotten comfortable while waiting for a treat. He was still hopeful as he followed her lead.

It was quiet in the late afternoon. She hurried to get to the city gate's wall, not considering that her father didn't move as fast as she did. He somehow kept up; it was obvious where Rose was leading him.

Ansem was out of breath by the time they climbed the stairs to the top of the wall. Even though he quickly regained his composure, she was reminded again of how much he had aged. Remembering what her mother's letters said, she realized that her parents hadn't been young when she was even born.

"There," Rose pointed to Maleficent's tower before the mountains. It looked much smaller from the city. Though water was returning to the basin, it had yet to reach ground the tower stood on.

"Does she still inhabit it?" He frowned.

"No, but she can show up at any time." Rose pet Junker. "She was the one who attacked the kingdom. The apprentices didn't do any of it. Xehanort just left it for her to take over. Mom took me away once you were gone, but Maleficent found us and killed her."

Though she had shaken Rose in their last encounter, she wasn't afraid to talk about Maleficent now. Her whole attention was on that box, if she hadn't been slain yet by someone else. Rose hoped she got what she deserved from it. It wasn't worth the trouble; going after it would just get her killed.

"Rose..." Ansem began, but never finished. She spoke again while he was thinking of something to say.

"I don't remember a lot of things. The part about the orphanage was true. But I learned how to fix and fly ships from smugglers. A lot of that goes on between worlds." She explained, finally able to talk about it. "I was with them until I got fired and Maleficent kept me in that tower. I escaped and went back to the smugglers for awhile. But then she tricked me and I killed one of the men. I came home after that, and fought her in that tower. After that, I was stranded in the wilderness. Junker found me and hasn't left me alone since. We stayed in a village until spring, then came home."

She had her backed turned to Ansem the whole time, preferring to look at Junker while talking. The dog continued to pant and wag his tail. He didn't understand a word that was said to him.

Rose could have kept it all from Ansem. Now that it was out, and he was still quiet, she wondered if she should have. But by saying it all aloud, she actually began to believe that none of it was her fault. It wasn't as terrifying as she thought it would be. She didn't go into a fit.

"I tried chasing after Maleficent when she left the world to find some stupid box, but it wasn't worth it. So I came back." Rose added, glancing at him.

The look of pity was expected. "You went through all of that because I was too much of a fool to see what Xehanort was up to all along."

She tried to shrug it off. "Maleficent acted on her own."

He suddenly wrapped his arms around her. Rose froze, unsure of what to do. Her first instinct was to get away, but that would hurt Ansem. She didn't have the urge to lash out while enclosed in an embrace. Tears came before she could stop them. She hugged back to stabilize herself, hiding her face in his shoulder so he wouldn't see her crying.

"I'm glad you're home, Rose."

She didn't respond for a few moments, and Ansem didn't rush her. It wasn't long before the tears dried up, dissipating as fast as they had come, and the fear with them. She hadn't felt such peace in a long time. Maybe things would be okay after all.

"The tower needs to be destroyed before the water gets too high." Rose tried to brush off her emotional display as she pulled herself out of the hug.

"It will be done." He promised, placing a hand on her shoulder. "You can always come talk to me if you need to. My research will no longer get in the way."

She smiled, believing him. "Okay."

They didn't have any other reason to spend time on top of the wall. With plans set, they went to dinner, which would be uninterrupted by Ansem's apprentices. Rose found it easier to talk while he knew almost everything she went through. Some things were better left kept in the dark, to be forgotten about.

* * *

Ansem kept to his word: while he and his apprentices continued to use the lab, they downsized on their projects, giving up space in the lab for Rose's ship (Even had some protests, but was overruled). He was also easy to find, if Rose ever needed something from him. Their projects kept them busy, but they also crossed paths in the midst of them. Things were definitely better than before.

Her first project, of course, was to see Maleficent's tower fall. All it took was a few well-placed explosives about the tower, void of monsters and their mistress, who was hopefully long since dead. Rose watched the tower blow apart from the city's walls. With that gone, she felt a little more at home.


End file.
